Titans Forever
by Algol H
Summary: Three years have passed since the Brotherhood's defeat. The Titans still guard Jump City. Over the years things have changed; what it means to fight evil, to protect the city, to do what is necessary. Other things have stayed the same; camaraderie, honor, and the people's need for heroes. One thing will always be true: when there's trouble, you know who to call.
1. THE RANCIDS

**TITANS FOREVER**

 **CHAPTER ONE:** _THE RANCIDS_

In Jump City, everything can change in an instant. This is a fact that the city's people know well. Life is complex in its details, yet simple in its themes, and in a place like Jump City life happens big. People love deep and hate deeper. People aspire to new heights and, sometimes, to new lows. Each person tries their best to make their mark, and in this pursuit they create works and histories that build off one another, growing more and more extreme as time passes, until the city is awash in a culture of the surreal.

Thus, though it came as a terrible surprise, it was not altogether unusual when a peaceful morning in the Jump City Central Park exploded into mayhem. A robotic tiger, roughly the size of a two story home, fell out of the sky and impacted like a meteor into a statued fountain. Its landing caused the earth to shake. Shattered bits of pavement and stone flew through the air, accompanied by a blastwave of soil. All around, people screamed in surprise and terror, some taking cover, some running for their lives. The colossal automaton flexed its back, roared with mechanized might and slashed its bladed tail back and forth. As if cued by the roar, a swarm of smaller, life-sized tigerbots leapt out from their behemoth mother. These monsters immediately began rampaging throughout the park, causing further panic. They ripped and tore with razor claws and burned buildings and greenery with great gouts of fire that shot from their open mouths. Above the clangor of the sudden devastation, a rough laughter echoed as a human figure peered down from the behemoth's metal head.

"GOOD MOOOORNIIIIIIIIING, JUMP CITY!" bellowed Johnny Rancid, sneering manically from atop his latest creation, "WE ARE YOUR ENTERTAINMENT FOR TODAY! NO! No, wait..." Rancid paused for a moment to pantomime thought, "YOU ARE _OUR_ ENTERTAINMENT FOR TODAY! HAH!"

Rancid threw back his long shock of greasy hair, flexed his tattooed muscles, and laughed with the sort of self-satisfaction that only the deranged can experience.

"THAT'S RIGHT!" came a shrill cry. A skinny, blonde girl stepped out from the shadows behind Rancid. She wore a hot-pink tube top, a jet-black mini skirt, and a metallic, clunky belt. "RUN! SCREAM! DANCE FOR ME! **DIE** FOR ME! HAHAHAHA!"

"You tell 'em, Kitten," said a smooth, luxuriously deep voice. Following the girl was a leather-jacketed, jack-booted thug with a four-legged spider for a head. His humanoid body dangled almost lifelessly as he jerked forward on his arachnoid limbs. Kitten turned to face this abomination with her hands clutched together and her eyes shining.

"Oooh, Fangy-Poo!" Kitten swooned, clinging onto the dangling human form inside the cage of spiderlegs, "It's just as beautiful as you said it would be!"

"I'd never lie to you, baby," Fang crooned through his jibbering mandibles, eight eyes blinking in random syncopation.

"'Ow lovely," mumbled a spikey-haired, gap-toothed, pox-faced lad from across the metal back of Rancid's behemoth. Punk Rocket lounged carelessly, his guitar on one side and a brown-bagged bottle on the other. He took a deep swig of hidden liquid and sighed, "Lemme know when the real action kicks off, yeah?"

"IT'S KICKING OFF NOW!" erupted a fifth and final voice. A muscular young man with a military haircut, black fatigues, and a belt full of detonators strode forth.

"Hahahaha! Yes!" Rancid cheered, his eyes burning with hateful glee. Rancid threw his arms wide and addressed the burning parkscape before him, "LADIES AND GENTLEMAN! BOY AND GIRLS! VICTIMS OF ALL AGES! ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE YOU TO A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE! JUMP CITY, SAY HELLO TO THE REVOLUTIONARY! THE VISIONARY! ALL THE WAY FROM GOTHAM CITY! THE MAD MAN WITH THE MAD PLAN! MAD STAN!"

"JUMP CITY!" Mad Stan howled, striding forward to the head of Rancid's mechano-tigergiant. "YOUR ECONOMY RISES! OTHER ECONOMIES FALL! EVERY DOLLAR YOU SPEND EFFECTS US ALL! CAN'T EVER FIND BALANCE! EQUALITY ISN'T TRUE! WE'VE GOT NO ANSWER! SO WHAT DO WE DOOOOO?!"

Rancid, Kitten, and Fang all jumped and cheered the answer along with Mad Stan. Punk Rocket chanted blithely and pumped a lazy fist:

 **"BLOW IT ALL UP!"**

Mad Stan pressed a button on one of his detonators. A nearby gazebo immediately turned to nothing more than hot ash and cindered splinters as it exploded with an overabundance of force. The blast sent out a bone-breaking shockwave and instantly charred all the greenery for several yards. A swirling pillar of flame roared in the explosion's wake, and a cloud of acrid smoke rose up into the blue of the coastal sky.

Citizens screamed anew. Those who had taken cover now began to flee in desperation, many clinging tightly to their children. The tigerbots' red glass eyes caught the movement of new prey and they gave chase. Punk Rocket yawned. The other three cheered. Mad Stan worked himself up into a greater frenzy.

"OUR SCARCITY IS ARTIFICIAL! OUR JUSTICE CORRUPT! OUR FAILURES BENEFICIAL! KEYNESIAN CUT UP! OUR OBSOLESCENCE IS PLANNED! OUR PAIN HAS VALUE! OUR ONLY CHOICE IS TO SUFFER! SO WHAT DO WE DOOOOO?!"

 **"BLOW IT ALL UP!"**

Another of Mad Stan's fat fingers. Another big, red button. The nearby snack-shack erupted in a fountain of blackened aluminum shrapnel and a twenty foot spire of red-glowing gas. More terror. More tears. More cheers from the behemoth's back. Mad Stan tossed away his two spent detonators and pulled two new ones from his belt.

"OUR EDUCATION IS PUBLIC! OUR BEHAVIOR PRESCRIBED! INDOCTRINATION ENFORCED! INSTINCT CHEMICALLY DENIED! DON'T TALK AND DON'T THINK! REBEL HOW WE SAY! OUTRAGE IS ATTENTION! THOUGHT NEUTERED AND SPAYED! THE OPPOSITION CONTROLLED! REVOLUTION UNTRUE! ALL RECOURSE HIJACKED! SO WHAT DO WE DOOOOO?!"

 **"BLOW IT ALL UP!"**

Mad Stan raised two mad hands, both thumbs poised righteously over red buttons. Many of the injured and cornered looked up at Mad Stan, fear and soot on their desperate faces. Others were in no position to look. The tigerbots were not killing people, but instead playing with their prey, cutting and scorching but never slashing or burning. They let their wounded targets up to run before chasing them down again. The helpless people cringed into one another as Mad Stan grinned widely and savored the moment, but just before the young man could trigger what would surely have been fiery explosions of excessive magnitude, a precisely aimed bird-a-rang swooped through the air and knocked both detonators of out Mad Stan's hands.

"GYAAHHH!" Mad Stan grunted, hugging his hands in pain as the severed detonators clanked uselessly against the neck of Rancid's behemoth. The bird-a-rang rushed airily back to its source, and Robin caught it in a green gloved hand.

The Boy Wonder smirked down from a nearby building-top just beyond the park's treeline.

"Sorry to interrupt your speech," said Robin, producing a handful of explosive discs from his utility belt, "But I've got a comment on your human condition: TITANS! GO!"

"FINALLY!" Rancid roared, rushing forward onto his behemoth's head and knocking back the still-wincing Mad Stan. Rancid brought two fingers to his lips and whistled sharply. All around the immediate area, the tigerbots turned towards Robin and snarled, their metal teeth dripping liquid fire. Jet-rockets _whirred_ out from slats in their backs and the tigerbots launched into the air trailing flame and exhaust. The beasts roared fiercely as they approached Robin's perch.

Robin leapt into the open air with a blurring fury. As he fell to meet the burning maws of Rancid's monsters, Robin arced his arm forward and let the explosive discs fly. Rancid's beasts opened their mouths and set the sky on fire. Rancid grinned madly as the flames rushed up to meet the Boy Wonder, but before the beasts' searing screams could reach Robin, a hailstorm of glowing starbolts flanked the tigerbots from above, each one hitting their target with the force of an artillery blast.

Starfire blurred overhead in a streak of alien green. Her battlecries echoed across the sky as she destroyed each of Rancid's tigerbot's single-handedly. The flamebreath caught short as both Robin and his explosive discs _whooshed_ unscathed through the weakened firewall. Robin tumbled to the grassy parkgrounds as his discs landed squarely in the eyes of Rancid's behemoth. The great automaton reeled backwards and roared in programmed pain as the lenses and circuitry of its cybernetic eyes exploded and began to melt inside its own metallic skull. Robin smirked as he stood from his roll and unleashed his extended bo-staff.

"DAMN IT!" Rancid pulled at his greasy hair, keeping his balance even as the behemoth reeled beneath him, "SO CLOSE!"

Kitten shrieked disgustedly into Fang's chest. Mad Stan wailed and rolled with the behemoth's movement.

"Yeah. Nice one." Punk Rocket smirked as he leaned up from his lounging position and eyed the destruction. He hopped up to his feet, letting his bagged-bottle fall, and readied his guitar.

"LET'S GO, BIRDBOY! RAAAAAUGH!" Rancid roared as he leapt off the head of his behemoth. As Rancid fell, a motorbike launched out of the behemoth's chest. Rancid landed deftly on the mid-air motorbike and, gripping its handlebars tightly, hit the ground accelerating towards Robin at a kamikaze pace.

"Show time, Kitten," Fang said wistfully. He placed an arachnid kiss on Kitten's pouting lips and then launched himself off into the nearest unburnt tree with an unsettling, spiderlike lurch.

"LEZ CRANKET UP THEN!" Punk Rocket wailed, finally excited. He struck a messy chord and shot off into the air, cradling his guitar as it sonically propelled him towards Robin. Robin held his ground, focusing all his attention on Rancid. Punk Rocket grunted and, mid-flight, struck an off-key chord that sent a warbling mass of devastating sound towards the Boy Wonder. A shredded frenzy of grass and soil marked the approach of Punk Rocket's lethal tones.

"HOW 'BOUT SOME AUTOTUNE? YYYYAAAAAAAHH!" Cyborg yelled as he jumped out of a nearby bush. Cyborg's forearm morphed into his signature sonic canon, but then grew and extended several acoustic panels. Cyborg fired his own beam of energized soundwaves, which cancelled out Punk Rocket's weaponized noise and knocked the crusty villain out of the air. Punk Rocket yelled as he crashed roughly into the hard ground.

"RRAAAUUUGH!" Rancid roared as he bore down on Robin. Robin kept his stance perfectly still. His eyemask narrowed in concentration as the villainous biker closed the last few yards between them. At the last second, Rancid stood, leaned back, and pulled the front of his bike up in a wheelie. As he did so, rows of spikes _chunged_ out of his bike's tires, catching light as they spun.

"DIE!" Rancid cried as he allowed his front tire to fall at Robin just as they met. Robin merely side stepped and swung his bo-staff, catching Rancid squarely in the chest. Rancid could not scream, for the blow knocked the wind out of him and sent him sprawling back onto the scorched parkgrounds as his bike roared off unmanned.

"Aaah!" Kitten gasped as Rancid and Rocket both went down. She stomped across the metal back of Rancid's beast to stand in front of the still wincing Mad Stan, "GET UP IDIOT!" she shrieked, stomping an expensive shoe. "QUIT WHINING AND DO WHAT YOU DO!"

"Wh-what do I do again?" Mad Stan asked, tremble-lipped and teary-eyed, as he kneeled over his pained hands.

"Grrr!" Kitten ground her teeth together, "You moron! BLOW IT ALL UP!"

"Oh," Man Stan's face opened up with childlike surprise. A hazy gleam covered his eyes.

"Yeeess!" Kitten grinned as Mad Stan stood, his sneering smile wide enough to show his receding gums.

"Blow it all up," said Mad Stan, his eyes looking at nothing. His chest heaved with heavy breath and he drooled from the edges of his smile.

"YEEES!" Kitten cheered.

"Blow it all up!" Mad Stan repeated. He marched to the behemoth's head with heavy, lumbering footfalls, chanting to himself, "Blow it all up! Blow it all up! Blow it all up!"

As Mad Stan meandered, Rancid caught his breath, jumped to his feet, and whipped out a long, spiked chain all in one fluid motion. Robin backflipped away from the chain as it slashed underneath him, leaving a deep gash where he'd been standing a moment before. As Robin landed he side-stepped away from another chain-lash, and then another, and another. Rancid grunted as he whipped and whipped at the Boy Wonder fruitlessly.

At the same time, Punk Rocket gathered himself and began to shred his guitar, sending an audial onslaught in Cyborg's direction. Cyborg took a powerstance and calmly aimed his modified cannon-arm at Punk Rocket. The weapon-limb whined for just a moment before firing off a continuous stream of counter-sound. The two tones met like a thunderclap and struggled at the point of collision. The tonal tension shot out warbling waves of omnidirectional wind. A desperate sweat broke across Punk Rocket's forehead as his strumming intensified. Cyborg took a couple of relaxed steps forward with his cannon-arm still raised and firing, causing a knockback of Punk Rocket's own noise. The villain clenched his teeth and dug his heels into the earth. His constant string-slashing continued on even as the tonal forces inched him back. Cyborg strolled casually towards his foe, but turned his gaze away carelessly.

"We gonna finish this, or what?" Cyborg called across the way, a playful expression lighting up his face.

"Do it!" Robin called back as he twirl-dodged another lash from Rancid's spike-chain.

Making their moves in tandem, Robin lunged for Rancid with his bo-staff while mini-missiles launched from abruptly opening silos in Cyborg's shoulders.

Rancid grunted and backstepped, gripping a section of his chain with both hands and using it to parry a series of fast jabs from Robin's staff. Punk Rocket grit his teeth and struck a powerchord. The tonal tension reversed and launched Punk Rocket backwards and upwards just as the mini-missiles exploded around him.

"Not getting away that easy, dude," Cyborg smirked and followed Punk Rocket's trajectory with his counter-sound cannon-arm, forcing Punk Rocket to keeping shredding in an erratic attempt at his normal flight.

As the duos struggle, Mad Stan arrived at the head of the behemoth. His glazed gaze found his comrades fighting below him, but their plight did not seem to penetrate past his clouded eyes.

"Blow it all up," Mad Stan intoned, a mantra of mindless destruction. He pulled a detonator from his belt and pressed it without ceremony. A nearby playground ripped apart in a shockwave and a plume of fire. Mad Stan dropped that detonator and pulled out another.

"Blow it all up," repeated Mad Stan. A non-chalant button-press. A public washroom turned to burning rubble.

"Blow it all up," a pavilion with tables. "Blow it all up," an outdoor auditorium. "Blow it all up," a bike-rental rack.

One by one in rapid succession, a series of massive explosions tore through the park, causing Rancid, Robin and Cyborg to take cover, and allowing Punk Rocket to escape into the sky.

"Blow it all up!" Mad Stan's mad grin grew ever wider as his face lit up in another explosion. "Blow it all up!" The smell of ashes and burnt chemicals wafted into his nose, increasing his arousal.

"That's enough! You IDIOT!" Kitten wailed, clasping her hands over her ears in an attempt to block out the deafening blasts.

"BLOW IT ALL UP!" Mad Stan repeated, pulling out yet another detonator, heedless of Kitten's words.

Kitten growled at this and kicked Mad Stan in the back of the knee, "I said STOP IT!"

Mad Stan grunted as the kick brought him to a knee and caused him to lose grip of his detonator. For a moment the park was filled with a deafening silence as the echoes of the last explosion vanished.

"Huh," Kitten sighed, taking her hands off her ears.

"Blow it all up," Mad Stan said, standing again and turning to face Kitten, his expression almost inhuman in its intensity.

"Yeah, but NOT all at once, RETARD!" Kitten nagged, shoving a wagging finger in Mad Stan's face, "You'll blow US up, too!"

Mad Stan's eyes focused for a brief moment as something got through to him, "All at once."

"No!" Kitten stamped her foot.

Mad Stan undid his belt of detonators and held it aloft. Turning it around revealed one red button that had wires to every detonator slot.

"Blow it ALL up!" Mad Stan said with childlike glee.

"Why won't anybody listen to me?!" Kitten shrieked as she lunged for the belt in an attempt to wrestle it away from Mad Stan, but the much larger man held her at bay with a single arm. Mad Stan brought the final button close to his twisted face, entranced.

"Blow it all up! Blow it all up! BLOW IT ALL UP! NOW!" Mad Stan grunted and moved to headbutt the final button, but just before his forehead turned the Central Park into an ashpit, the detonator belt lit up with blackshine.

 _-DONK!-_

"OWIE!" Mad Stan reeled back, clutching his forehead.

"I hate to agree with Kitten," Raven said, slowly ascending from a fountain of shadows that bloomed from the behemoth's back, "but, at least in this case, you really should listen to her."

"Ya!" Kitten crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out at the wincing bomber.

"Blow it! All! UP!" Mad Stan growled, his grin turned to a grimace and his drool started to foam. Kitten gulped and took a few steps back. Raven merely deadpanned and levitated the detonator belt inside the hidden folds of her cloak.

"You get one chance to think better of this," Raven droned at the seething villain.

"RRRAAAUGH!" Mad Stan roared and threw himself at Raven. She merely levitated to the side and allowed Mad Stan to careen off the behemoth's back, his roar quickly turning into a frightened squeal as he fell roughly two stories to the burnt ground below.

"Haha!" Kitten giggled, peering over the side of the behemoth, "Maybe that'll knock some sense into him!"

"Doubt it," Raven droned, floating up next to her. "Oh, and you're under arrest."

Shocked realization dawned on Kitten's face and she scrambled back up to her feet, "HA! You think you'll stop us?! My guys will tear you to shreds!"

"They seem kinda busy," Raven glanced over to the battleground before them. Kitten looked as well.

On the ground, Rancid's bike had swerved back around to the battle and found its rider again. Rancid tore through the blazing battleground, his spiked wheels throwing up ash and dirt as he took potshots at Robin and Cyborg with his blaster. At the same time, Punk Rocket strafed the Titanic duo with destructive noise from the sky. For their part, Robin and Cyborg scrambled to evade the villainous offensive and return fire. They were expertly avoiding damage, but were not gaining any control of the situation.

"Hah!" Kitten laughed, "They've got 'em on the ropes! Won't be long now before-"

The situation on the ground changed drastically as Starfire swooped in, tackled Punk Rocket mid-air, and then green-streaked him out of sight entirely. Robin and Cyborg immediately concentrated their fire on Rancid, who's only response was to rev his engine and peel off into a different part of the park with Robin and Cyborg hot on his heels.

"You were saying?" Raven grinned ever-so-slightly.

"Hhuhh... Fiiine!" Kitten sighed and pressed a button on the buckle of her clunky metallic belt. With a flash of light and a ringing of metal, a felinoid battle suit enveloped Kitten.

"Guess I'll have to tear you to shreds myself!" Kitten's voice buzzed out from her cat-eared helmet. She punctuated her statement by unsheathing a set of claws from her metal-gloved fingers.

"Sooo threatened," Raven droned, still grinning.

"You should be," a deep voice growled behind her.

Raven barely managed to dodge the stream of mutant web that Fang shot at her from behind, and then just managed to block Kitten's powersuited-lunge with a flat plane of blackshine. Kitten's claws raked across the mystic shield as if it were a chalkboard. Raven levitated up and away from the behemoth in an attempt to gain air superiority, but this was in vain, as Kitten power-leapt above her and pounced down with claws flashing. Raven shielded herself from above, catching Kitten's pounce but losing a great deal of altitude in the process. Raven used her magic shield to shrug Kitten off, but as she did so Fang managed to web her, binding her limbs together and tethering her to the spiderpunk. Kitten's powerarmor let her doublejump through the air and perch back on top of the nearby behemoth.

"Well well," Kitten's voice crackled through the helmet once more. She tinkled her claws together in pleasure as Raven struggled against Fang's ever growing cocoon. "That was easy enough."

"Ain't done yet, mama."

"Huh?" Kitten gasped. She turned to find the voice but instead found a green bull at the end of its charge.

Beast Boy collided hard with Kitten, sending the two falling through open air. While Kitten only shrieked, her suit reacted, producing a built in jet and flying her off to a safe altitude. Beast Boy morphed into a falcon and swooped back overhead.

"Baby!" Fang whipped around to check on Kitten, and that split second gave Raven all the time she needed.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Raven intoned. A surge of blackshine shredded the cocoon from the inside out. Raven's eyes glowed hot grey and she took an esoteric pose, coalescing the black energy into a spiraling wave that bore down on Fang. The spiderpunk moved inhumanly, wrenching his spiderlimbs into a sick angle before catapulting himself away from Raven's magic, his human torso ragdolling along the entire time. Fang landed deftly in a nearby tree, hoping to hide in the smoke and remaining foliage, but no sooner had he landed than a screeching chimpanzee fell on him from above.

"Damn it!" Fang cursed as the green ape wrestled him. Beast Boy's agility and hand-feet allowed him to keep up with Fang's spider moves, and before long the two tumbled to the ashen ground opposite one another.

"Give it up, dude!" Beast Boy said, morphing back into his normal form. "You're no match for the Teen Titans, and you know it, fool!"

"What he said," Raven droned, coming down to hover nearby.

"You two are forgetting one thing," Fang crooned, his human body actually moving as he held up a single finger.

"What's that?" Beast Boy asked, genuinely curious.

"THE POWER OF LOOOOOOVE!" Kitten shrieked as she swooped in from the skies.

Raven grunted and encased herself in a sphere of blackshine just as Kitten hammered her at an angle from above. The force of the blow caused Raven's black sphere to pinball off the ground and up into the air. At the same time, Fang lurched sideways, shooting paralyzing venom at Beast Boy. The green teen morphed into a snake at the last second, avoiding the poison, then shifted into a rabbit and darted after Fang.

In the air, Raven and Kitten traded blows, slamming into one another at high speeds and sending deafening echoes reverberating over the burning and abandoned wasteland that had been a tranquil morning park just minutes before. Beneath them, Fang and Beast Boy darted inbetween blazing trees and smoking rubble in a potentially lethal game of tag, with Beast Boy performing impossible maneuvers through constant shifting, trying to catch Fang without being stung, and Fang moving inhumanly on his mutated appendages, trying to do the opposite. The sound of small explosions and a motorcycle engine wafted in from somewhere in the distance. The behemoth whined electronically, pawing gently at its melted eyes.

At the boundaries of the park, a parade of emergency vehicles had just arrived, and the circus of the response culture began. EMTs ushered the wounded into emergency tents and ambulances. Police scrambled to talk to witnesses and gain an understanding of the situation. As they did so, they followed standard procedure by building up barricades around the main points of egress. Firefighters lined up into squads, coordinating with police to try and make a plan for containing the park fire. Journalists scurried like roaches around the edges of everything, snapping photos, speaking into cameras, and blasting questions at whoever they could pin down. News and images spread like lightning over Jump City. Social media updates and news reports inserted themselves into peoples' workplaces, schools, homes, lives, catching their attention and causing conversation but never once interrupting the flow of the morning. It was Jump City, afterall.

Back inside the park, the game of tag between Beast Boy and Fang had evolved. The two still darted between trees and debris, but now they fought in close quarters as well. Fang proved his human torso to be anything but lifeless as he struck out with unnatural strength using his normal arms and legs. His blows splintered black tree trunks and crumbled smoking stone, and all the while Fang lurched and leapt this way then that on his spiderlimbs, spewing poison from his jibbering mandibles, missing nothing with his eight eyes.

Beast Boy whirled around the spiderpunk in a chimeric blur of green. He danced back and forth as half-beasts and twisted proto-life; slithering away from blows, shrinking away from poison, swiping out with garish claws, and combining his various forms' relative-sizes with his instant morphing to cheat the speed he needed to match Fang's blinding quickness.

The twisted duel between the two grew faster and more frantic with each second it continued on. As the two dodged and struck and blurred the fight became less about actually landing a blow and more about controlling the flow of the other's movement, pinning the other down to a point where they could no longer dodge. Before long things came to a head and, in a split second where Beast Boy tried to frogleap/bearswipe at Fang to gain some initiative, Fang himself found an opening and struck Beast Boy with his venomous spit square on the changeling's lower back.

"Gyak!" Beast Boy grunted, stumbling to the ground in his normal form. He hissed in pain and broke out in a cold sweat as the paralysis began to move achingly through his body. In an attempt to slow the poison, Beast Boy began constantly shifting from one animal to the next. Fang laughed a deep, warm laugh as he jerked forward, looming over his shifting prey.

"That won't stop my venom," Fang told Beast Boy in a tone that would have been disarming in a different context. Beast Boy, still shifting, began to weakly crawl away from Fang, each form making small noises of effort and discomfort as the paralysis spread. Fang continued on, with a voice far too inviting.

"Once my Kitten takes your witch out of the way, we'll walk all over the rest of your friends, and then she and I will remake this town in our image, so that no one can question our love!"

"Dude," Beast Boy gasped weakly, settling in his normal form as the paralysis finally overtook his legs.

"Ya?" Fang asked, casually.

"Th-that's," Beast Boy gulped and smiled palely up at his foe, "a-actually pretty cute, my man."

"Thanks," Fang responded brightly.

"No prob," Beast Boy smiled, closing his eyes. For a moment things stayed silent, until-

"BRAAAAUGH!" **-POW!-**

Beast Boy morphed into a half-paralyzed gorilla and uppercut Fang ten feet into the air. The spiderpunk's whole body ragdolled into a disturbing pile of twitching limbs once it crashed into the ground.

As Fang twitched, Beast Boy morphed into a tiny green lizard. The lizard moved quickly on its forelegs, pressing its paralyzed hind legs and tail against a nearby stone until one by one each of them {popped} right off. The little lizard then shut its eyes and flexed for several long moments before, one by one, each lost limb -pop- regenerated in full. Beast Boy then morphed into his normal form, dusted himself off, and gave his legs a good stretch.

"Aaaah, yeeeahh," Beast Boy moaned with pleasure as he stretched, "Nothing like new limbs, man."

As he was stretching, Beast Boy paused, his pointed ears pricking up. He turned his gaze skyward, then immediately turtle-shelled just as Raven and Kitten collided with the ground in a massive impact.

As the sound died down and the dust cleared, Raven and Kitten struggled against one another. Raven hovered a couple feet in the air. Though she had kept her expression blank, several beads of sweat betrayed her effort. Her eyes glowed grey and her cape flowed in a wind that was not there. Raven's arms were thrown wide, and each hand posed in its own mudra, letting off jagged bolts of blackshine that ended as gigantic talons.

Kitten struggled against these talons. Her attempts to wrestle for supremacy caused her powerarmor to whine and screech with effort, her metallic heels were slowly forced ever deeper into the ashen dirt of the park. The powerarmor itself was dented and ragged. Its face covering had been partially shattered, and so Kitten's panting came without its former digital buzz.

"Surrender," Raven said simply. There was a slight echo to her voice, and it seemed to not come entirely from her mouth.

"Nnnngh," Kitten groaned as the talons forced her another few centimeters into the dirt. The exposed part of her face scowled at Raven from behind the missing portion of her shattered helmet, and she shouted with pure, spoiled rage, "Tch! Screw that!"

Kitten's powerarmor began to give off sparks in its most damaged places as its veins and creases lit up with a creeping energy that settled in Kitten's chest.

"Eat laser, ya freak!" Kitten cried as the energy bulged outward from her chest, and then blasted out in a wide cone of blinding light. Raven's silhouette could be seen inside the cone of light. The silhouette wavered for a moment, and then vanished. As it did, the talons dissipated, and Kitten fell to her knees. The buzzing drone of the power blast hummed to an end as the cone collapsed into a line and then shorted out. For a moment all was silent save for Kitten's panting. She looked left, then right, and amazement began to dawn on her features.

"Yes," Kitten smiled, "Yes! Hahaha! I did it! I FRICKIN' DID IT! HAHAHAHAHAAAA!"

"Raven?" Beast Boy called out, emerging from his hiding place. "Uuuh, Raveeeen?"

Kitten gasped as her eyes fell on Fang, "Oh, FANGY-POO!" Kitten power-leapt over to her lover's crumpled form and cradled him in her armored arms.

"Oh, Fang!" Kitten heaved with barely constrained lust, "Fang! Speak to me!"

Fang coughed as Kitten gently caressed the largest space between his several eyes, "Ugh, kid cheap shotted me. Let my guard down. I'll be fine though. He's just got a mean uppercut. Not to mention a fist half the size of the human body when he wants. Hahah-heeek!"

"Oh, Fangy-poo! Save your strength!" Kitten layered on the melodrama, "You just let your Kitten take care of you! No mean old Titans are gonna hurt us any more, baby!"

"Raaaaven?!" Beast Boy called, "Yulllloooooo? Olly olly oxenfree!"

"Tcha," Kitten turned from her love to sneer at Beast Boy, "She can't hear you!"

"Huh?" Beast Boy considered Kitten with a mystified look. The villainous valley girl stood and preened.

"That's right," Kitten gave a nasty giggle, "She can't hear you! Cuz I KILLED her you moron!"

"Riiiight," Beast Boy cocked a sarcastic eyebrow.

"Deny it all you want," Kitten's smile was pure venom, "That'll just make it all the sweeter when you accept the truth! I KILLED Raven with MY powersuit!"

Kitten flourished an arm down at her armor, and Beast Boy's ears perked up.

"There you are!" Beast Boy chirped.

"Huh?" Kitten asked, then looked down at her armor. There, around her midsection, she found an odd shadow that, by all rights, shouldn't have been there. Kitten's brow furrowed, and as she looked closer, two patches of hot grey opened up like eyes in the shadow's center.

"EEP!" Kitten jumped back, attempting to wipe the darkness off her body, but her gloved hands only scrapped against the metal of her armor. The shadow moved over the rest of Kitten's armor and then began to seep into the cracks and crevasses.

"No! No! Get off! Getoffgetoffgetoff of me!" Kitten cried as she swatted uselessly at the shadow.

"Kitten?" Fang's voice was strained as he struggle to sit up, "Baby? Tss! Ouch. Grrr! What's happening? I swear, if you hurt her!"

"AAAH!" Kitten cried as the last of the shadow entered her suit. She gave one final cry as a wave of blackshine covered her half-exposed face and silenced her.

"Kitten?!" Fang called out in pained desperation. Beast Boy watched on with a huge smile, recording the event on his communicator.

Kitten's armor rose slowly into the air. With an oddly echoing screech of metal, one of her arms snapped outward, followed immediately by the other. So crucified, the blackshine behind the half-shattered helmet began to build and warble with energy. The armor groaned as it began to bulge outward. A moment later the armor exploded in a wave of vicious darkness, and the unglowing form of Raven hovered in its place. Kitten fell out of this eldritch form, landing on the ashen ground with a thud and a huff, now clad only in her skirt and tube top. The wicked teen looked pale and had a startlingly open look on her face.

"What's happening?!" Fang grunted, growing angrier, "Kitten! KITTEN!"

"Huh?" Kitten's eyes blinked and she shook her head slowly," Wha- Where am- Fang?"

"Kitten?!" Fang's voice broke with relief.

"Fang!" Kitten scrambled over to her lover, all her usual priss and vinegar forgotten, and clung gently to his injured form.

"Oh, thank god!" Fang crooned, "I was so worried about you, baby!"

"Fang," was all Kitten said before kissing him tenderly on his mandibles.

Beast Boy cringed at the sight, but made sure to zoom in on the kiss with his communicator.

Raven's soul-self took a moment to dim and shift back into her normal body. When it did she pulled up her hood once more and floated over to Beast Boy.

"Good footage?" she droned.

"Oooh yeah," Beast Boy nodded.

Raven's eyes narrowed slightly and she flicked the tip of Beast Boy's pointed ear.

"Yeowch!" Beast Boy jumped, petting his ear, "What was that for?"

"Where are the others?" Raven's drone bordered on a growl.

"On their way, mama, chill!" Beast Boy whined.

"Did they call you?" Raven asked scrutinously.

"Not exactly," Beast Boy waggled his ears at her mockingly.

Raven raised an eyebrow and then looked off into the distance of the park, "Oh."

"Yeah," Beast Boy smiled smugly.

Raven flicked his other ear witch a spark of blackshine.

"Stop it!" Beast Boy whined.

"Do you want to stand in the way?" Raven asked as she floated to stand directly in front of the downed lovers.

"Huh?" Beast Boy asked.

Raven rolled her eyes, then brought her fingers up to her ears and waggled them mockingly at Beast Boy.

By then the approaching din of small explosions and a superpowered motorbike engine could be heard even by ears less acute than Beast Boy's. The green teen scrambled over to stand by Raven. Beast Boy grinned and started recording with his communicator once again. Raven rolled her eyes.

The sounds of fighting drew close quickly, and before long Johnny Rancid rocketed out of the nearby trees, his bike propelled through the air by twin streams of flame coming out from his exhaust pipes. Rancid laughed wildly has he blindly blanketed his 6 o'clock with automatic blaster fire. The red bolts of energy shattered the charred trees into splinters and cinders. Three bodies rushed unphased through the destruction and shot off attacks of their own. Robin's discs, Cyborg's cannon, and Starfire's starbolts all exploded in the air around Rancid as the madman landed his bike on the back of the behemoth once again. The mechanical beast shuddered at the sudden sensation and whipped its enormous head around blindly.

"YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE, TITANS!" Rancid bellowed, covered in sweat and soot as his spiked tires trailed sparks up the behemoth's back. Starfire flew, Cyborg leapt, and Robin grapple-hooked up to the behemoth's back in their pursuit of the final foe.

"Not that I really care a this point," Kitten asked, her voice strangely normal, "But shouldn't you be helping them?"

"And miss this sweet angle?" Beast Boy asked, clutching his communicator tightly, "No way!"

"Besides," Raven droned, "Robin and Cyborg will be obnoxiously grumpy if they don't manage to take at least one of you down."

Kitten could only blink at the frankness of the answer. Next to her, Fang's mandibles pursed in an odd expression before he asked, "We never stood a chance, did we?"

"Nope," Raven turned back to give them a shallow grin.

"YYYAAAAAUGH!" Rancid shrieked as he launched off the behemoth's head. Rancid's eyes bulged dangerously as his bike began to spiral. The villain dropped his blaster mid-air and slammed a hidden button in his bike's side. Just as the three pursuing Titans soared off the behemoth's head after Rancid, his bike unleashed an enormous volley of micro-missiles.

"Here comes the money shot!" Beast Boy cheered.

"Gross," Raven drone.

"Not like that," Beast Boy explained. Raven rolled her eyes.

As they bickered, Starfire swooped forward and clapped her hands together, sending out a wave of green energy that detonated all of Rancid's micro-missiles prematurely. Rancid landed, whipped his bike around, and looked up frantically at the wall of missile-fire above him. His expression fell as Robin and Cyborg both fell gracefully through the flames. Robin flipped in front of Cyborg and let fly a special type of disc. Cyborg reared back his cannon-arm and let out a gut-busting battlecry before firing a beam directly behind Robin's disc.

The two attacks merged and formed into a gigantic wave of white energy. Rancid's skin began to ripple as the attack approached him, and as the whiteness struck the ground before him Rancid could only shout, "HOLY SHIIIIIIII-!"

At the boundaries of the park, the response teams were starting to get a handle on the situation. The barricades were complete, the wounded were taken care of, the journalists were corralled, and advance teams were ready to enter the hotzone. Then an enormous explosion boomed through their ears as a flash of white light blinded them. When the light dimmed, a mini-mushroom cloud loomed over the park. The advance teams were called back, the journalists escaped the corral. Several men at the barricades needed a change of underwear. Video of the explosion was already trending.

Back in the park, Cyborg's laughter could be heard before the light of the explosion truly dimmed, "HAHAHAHAAA! Awwww man! The Sonic Boom? Seriously?! Hahaha!"

"It felt right," Robin swaggered up to Cyborg, his cape flapping heroically behind him.

"That is classic powermove!" Cyborg smiled hugely. He brought his massive metal hands up to gesture his feelings, "Class-ic!"

Several yards in front of them, Johnny Rancid groaned on the ground, surrounded by the wreckage of his bike.

"Joy!" Starfire called as she touched down beside the two. "We are victorious once again! I shall now perform the customary Earth whoops in celebration! Ahem, 'WOOOP! WOOPWOOP! WOOOOOP!'"

"Awww yee, that what's UP!" Beast Boy bounded up to the other Titans, holding up his communicator, "Got all that good footage right here!"

"Niiice!" Cyborg held up a hand that Beast Boy promptly high-fived. Raven floated up in the background, carrying Mad Stan, Fang, and Kitten in blackshine bubbles.

"Weeew," Cyborg winced as he looked through the magic spheres, "Dang, you got these guys good!"

"Yeah, you know, it ain't no thang," Beast Boy posed, trying to look cool.

"Two of them were mine," Raven droned as she plopped her captives down next to Rancid. Beast Boy deflated slightly.

"That reminds me," Robin said, "Whatever happened to Punk Rocket?"

"I have already delivered him into the care of the Jump City police!" Starfire exclaimed, holding up and explanatory finger. "They are waiting around the perimeter of the park to hear the 'All-Clear' signal."

"Nice work, Star," Robin smiled.

"Thank you," Starfire beamed.

"Yeah, good game, no doubt, but dang," Cyborg looked around, rubbing the back of his neck, "Not much park left is there? Yeesh."

"I dunno," Raven said, slight inflection actually entering her voice. The earth was scorched black all around them while trees and ruins smoked steadily. Across the way, the behemoth still whined and pawed at its empty eye sockets. Raven smiled, "I kinda like it this way."

Rancid coughed and leaned up on one arm, sneering at the Titans, "You, -hakk-, stupid kids. Hhuhh. You haven't won yet."

"I beg to differ, my dude," Beast Boy said as he walked up to the assembled villains, "Y'all are looking pretty rough. Wouldn't feel right kickin' dudes when they's down. That's not how heroes do thangs."

"Touch that," Cyborg smirked and held out a fist which Beast Boy blindly bumped.

"You think so, huh?" Rancid laughed, "We'll see about that. TINKLES!"

The behemoth stopped pawing at its eyes and turned its head in the direction of Rancid's voice. It let out a hopeful but terrifying, **"MROW?"**

"Uh oh," Raven droned.

"BATTLEMODE!" Rancid bellowed with the last of his strength before collapsing to the ground with a satisfied smirk.

 **"MROW!"** the behemoth Tinkles let out a confirmatory meow. Its chest then spread into several segments as it stood up on its hind legs. Massive gears could be heard turning as steam leaked out from the robotic giant's seams. The beast's shoulders and hips resituated to accommodate bipedal movement. Lastly, the tiger's great mouth cleaved in two, and out from its throat emerged a humanlike face, complete with two new eyes. Everything settled into place with a series of final clinks and clanks, followed by the whining of high-powered cells. Tinkles took a powerstance, opened its human-esque lips, and let out an ear-shattering battecry:

 _ **"SKKREEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!"**_

For a moment the Titans all stood silently gaping as Tinkles held its pose. Cyborg quietly took Beast Boy's fist, pressed his own against it, and then pulled it away while whispering, "Untoooouch."

Robin's face set in a stoic glare as he produced his bo-staff once more, shouting, "TITANS! END IT!"

All jocularity gone, the five teammates rushed forward into battle with the colossal monster. Each moved into position with neither word nor signal. Starfire picked up Robin and took to the skies, Beast Boy following the pair in the form of a green pterodactyl. Cyborg charged forward on foot.

Raven took to the skies and held a mystic gesture in front of her face while chanting, "Azarath. Metrion! ZINTHOS!"

Nearby, a thick tree, charred from flames, lit up in blackshine and ripped violently out from the ground. Raven took a centering breath and then swung her arms forward. The tree moved with the motion, and fell at the behemoth from above, slicing downwards. Tinkles repositioned its stance and caught the tree between two massive pawhands. Raven growled softly as her eyes glowed grey. The unglowing tree pressed downward, struggling against the mecha's mighty grip.

As Raven and the mecha struggled, Cyborg dashed directly at the hulking monstrosity. Opening up the display on his forearm, Cyborg moved a graphic labeled OUTPUT up as far as it would go. This caused a steaming cylinder to protrude from his forearm with a hiss. Cyborg slammed this cylinder back down and his arm morphed into its signature cannon, but it did not stop there. The pieces of the cannon all separated further as the weaponlimb elongated and increased its girth several fold. The blue lights of Cyborg's body began to flicker as this gargantuan cannon whined with building power.

In the sky, Raven sweat and ground her teeth as she met the mecha in a test of will. Forged indifference made up the mecha's steel visage as it held the blackshine tree at bay. With a rush of power, the behemoth's pawhands caught on plasmatic fire. The blinding energy enveloped the tree in an instant before detonating in an awesome blast of shadowed energy and burning fury. Raven cried out, grasping her head from the psychic shock as the concussive waves sent her spiraling backwards through the acrid air.

"HEY, TINKLES!" Cyborg roared. The mecha stepped forward through the lingering firestorm and looked down at the tiny man before him. Cyborg smirked as stabilizing rods shout out from his back and dug deep into the ground behind him. Cyborg hefted his massive cannon at the giant while shouting, "TAKE TH-!"

 **-BWWWWAAAAAAAMM!-**

A massive beam of blue-white tore forth from Cyborg's arm and bored into the behemoth's centermass. The beam's power burned for a few seconds, causing the beast to backtrack several steps before the light withered and died. Tinkles took an earth-shaking knee and ran a nuclear pawhand over its smoking and scarred chest. Cyborg panted heavily. The blue lights on his body dimmed and flickered as his arm returned to normal.

As the behemoth started back to its feet, Starfire gently threw Robin at the beast's massive frame. Robin produced his grapple-hook and, firing it at the beast, swung into an exposed joint in what would be the monster's arm pit. Beast Boy dove in the same joint and morphed into a green orangutan. Robin swiftly produced several explosive charges from his belt and handed them to Beast Boy. The two then parted ways, both leaving a charge in the exposed joint.

The mecha stood, unaware of the two Titans currently swinging about its outer hull. It peered down at the exhausted Cyborg through uncaring, cybernetic eyes. Cyborg gulped at the sight. Tinkles raised a burning hand towards Cyborg and let fly a barrage of immolated claws. As the humongous projectiles seared through the air at him, Cyborg readied himself. At the last second, the stabilizing rods in Cyborg's back released with a hiss of steam, and then propelled him far up and forward with a metallic _chung!_ , tossing him away from the claws' point of impact. The claws' fiery explosion rocked the park, and though he missed the brunt of the destruction, Cyborg was still thrown far further forward far faster than he had intended.

"AAAAAAAGH!" Cyborg screamed as he came crashing back down to the ground. He skipped across the ground like a stone across water, each impact resulting in a metallic clang and a grunt of pain. After a few skips Cyborg settled onto the earth at the end of a long skidmark.

"Nyyyah," Cyborg moaned as he struggled to stand up. His blue lights were dim but their flickering had ceased. Cyborg popped his neck as he found his feet, "Double-untouch. Wuh-oh!"

Cyborg reeled has he noticed that the behemoth had not lost track of him, and was raising a second flaming hand at his current position. Cyborg gulped and began to run. The behemoth easily tracked Cyborg's path, but before the monster could fire off another volley, a green star fell from the smoke-black sky.

"GRRRRAAUUUGH!" Starfire roared as she green-streaked into Tinkle's arm like a celestial hammer striking a massive anvil. The metallic sound reverberated well past the park, and for the first time some of Jump City's other citizens began to worry that the fight might be headed their way. The blow left a large dent in Tinkle's arm and jarred it far off course, causing its claw-missiles to fly wide, exploding well away from Cyborg.

Starfire took a steadying breath, shook off the impact, and turned to face the behemoth.

"You face Starfire of Tamaran! Prepare to meet your smaller brethren in the kitty afterlife, Tinkles Death-Claw!"

 _ **"SKKREEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK!"**_

The behemoth raised both burning hands and slashed with blinding speed at Starfire. The Tamaranean blurred through the air, dodging the plasma-trailing blows while simultaneously unleashing a steady stream of starbolts at the behemoth's face. The starbolts did little, but helped keep the monster's attention as Beast Boy and Robin climbed, leapt, and swung from crevasse to crevasse on the behemoth's massive body, planting charges as they went.

Before long the Boy Wonder and the green ape met once more. With a simple nod, the two leapt off the colossal robot and into the open air. Beast Boy quickly transformed into a pterodactyl which grasped Robin gently by the shoulders. As the pair flew off, Starfire pulled away, and Tinkles pawed after her fruitlessly.

"HEY, TINKLES!"

The behemoth looked down at the source of the voice and found Cyborg standing before him once more. The exhausted hero grinned viciously as he strolled forward, silos opening up one by one all over his torso.

"INTERRUPTED AT BREAKFAST!" Cyborg started, his grin widening, "WHO CARES IT'S PAST TEN? WE ARE THE TEEN TITANS! EAT WAFFLES ANYWHEN! EDGY THUGS WRECKED OUR PARK! BROUGHT THEIR KITTY CAT TOO! BUT ALL WE WANT IS MORE BREAKFAST! SO WHADDA WE DOOOO?!"

Cyborg's entire payload of rockets and missiles erupted from his body and flew towards the behemoth. The mecha raised one of its plasma paws to bat down the swarm of missiles, but before it could do so, Robin casually pressed a button on his utility belt. Twin explosions ripped through Tinkle's shoulder joint, causing its arm to fall. The missile swarm began to impact as the charges Robin and Beast Boy had placed in the behemoth's weakpoints went off in rapid succession.

Beast Boy and Robin landed next to Cyborg. Starfire soon touched down as well. Raven rose up from a shadow on the ground. The explosions began to pick up at a fevered pace.

 **"BLOW IT ALL UP!"** The Titans cheered, Raven barely so, as the detonations reached a culmination. The blasts all combined into one massive exothermic event that shredded the frame of the behemoth and shot it apart in a thousand shards of white hot hellhail.

The Titans cheered. The villains wailed. The responders all buzzed at the park's edge. The Internet hummed. The people gossiped. And, somewhere hidden, a man watched everything from a glowing screen.

* * *

 _H here, saying thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you'll join me next week for CHAPTER TWO: QUESTIONS AND CHRONOTONS._

 _Did that Mad Stan guy seem a little familiar to you? I swear I've seen him somewhere before._


	2. QUESTIONS AND CHRONOTONS

**TITANS FOREVER**

 **CHAPTER TWO:** _QUESTIONS AND CHRONOTONS_

Coastal sunset splashed across Titan Tower like an Impressionist's fever dream. Jump City buzzed and hummed, strobed and sparkled, loved and lived. In the lengthening shadow of Titan Tower the beach teemed with life. Bonfires lit up as teen ragers kicked into gear. The pier jingled and jangled as its perpetual circus actualized eternal celebration. Families and elderly couples strolled along the board walk, watching the ocean swallow the sun in a storm of rose and lavender.

As per usual, the Titans largely ignored all of this, having long since taken it for granted. Instead, most of the Titans lounged in their normal spots on the couch. Snacks littered the area around them while they laughed raucously at the massive holoscreen before them.

"Play it again, dude! Play it again!" Beast Boy cheered, his eyes shining with laughter as his face contorted into an almost tortured smile.

"Yes! Again!" Starfire chirped.

"Okay-okay-okay!" Cyborg answered giddily, picking up the remote.

"Seriously?" Raven groaned as the image on the holoscreen began to rewind. A conspicuous halo of cleanliness surrounded Raven's spot on the couch.

"Raven! Come on!" Beast Boy hollered, throwing his hand out in desperate mirth. "You CANNOT tell me this isn't the funniest thing you've ever seen!"

"You know, it actually was a little funny the first time it played. Tenth time? Not so much," Raven droned.

"I believe this is only the third time the video has repeated, Raven," Starfire corrected in an innocent tone.

"And the third time's the charm!" Cyborg barked, pressing play on the remote.

The screen resumed playing, showing the scene from earlier that morning when Johnny Rancid and his cohort had been taken to jail. Specifically, the screen portrayed Fang and Kitten, both in straight-jackets, being dollied by space-armored police into separate vans. An infographic bearing the JNN logo splashed haphazardly across the bottom of the screen, reading: **VILLAINOUS LOVERS SEPARATED! JUSTICE OR JUST CRUEL?**

"'FAANGY-POOOOOOOO!'" the image of Kitten shrieked loudly enough that her police escorts cringed as they wheeled her away. The camera cut clumsily to Fang.

"'I LOVE YOU, BABY!'" Fang bellowed in a luxuriously deep tone, his spiderlegs locked above his eight-eyed spiderhead by a set of special cuffs. Fang's mandibles jibbered wildly as he cried, "'I LOVE YOU! I'LL SCREAM IT IN FRONT OF THE JUDGE, IN FRONT OF GOD, IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE DAMN WORLD!'"

"'AAAAH!'" Kitten wailed, mascara running down her cheeks as she shook her head back and forth, "'LEMMEGOLEMMEGOLEMMEGOLEMMEGO!'"

"'DON'T WORRY, KITTEN!'" Fang called as the police wheeled him up the ramp into the back of the van. "'YOU'RE MY HEART, BABY! I'LL GET OUT AND I'LL FIND YOU! THEY CAN'T KEEP US APAR-'"

The van doors _slammed_ shut before Fang could finish. Kitten heaved a great sobbing breath as she was wheeled up her own ramp, and then yelled, "'FAANGY-POOOOOO-'" _SLAM_

The Titans all held for a moment, three of them bursting with anticipation, before the scene cut back to the JNN studio, where the rookie news anchor sat with an expression of disheveled shock. Cyborg mashed the pause button and dropped the remote as he and Beast Boy erupted into fresh hysterics. They laughed unbridled and flailed their limbs, knocking over several snack containers. Starfire giggled brightly, holding her cheeks and tucking her knees in amusement. Raven sat stone-faced.

"HAHA-HAHA! OMIGOODNESS!" Cyborg heaved for breath around his laughter, "AAAAHAHA!"

"DUUUDE!" Beast Boy howled and pointed a finger at the screen, "LOOK AT HIS FAAACE!"

"Teehee-Heehee!" Starfire giggled so hard she began floating off the couch.

"Hilarious," Raven droned.

"Oof," Robin cringe-grinned as he walked up behind the couch. "New anchor? Must be from out of town."

Cyborg wheeled around to face Robin, smiling hugely, "MAAAN! THIS IS HIS FIRST NIGHT WITH JNN!" Beast Boy and Starfire's laughter took on another degree of intensity.

"Ouch," Robin's smile grew and shook his head slowly.

"They've rewound it three times in a row now," Raven turned to look at Robin.

"You mean FOUR times, mama!" Beast Boy hollered, puffing out his chest. "Play it again! Play it again!"

"Awww yeeeah!" Cyborg shouted as he lunged for the remote once more, but just before he could scrape it up the remote lit up with blackshine and flew out of his grasp.

"Uh-uh," Raven droned as the remote flew into the folds of her cloak. The news began to play once more and the anchor quickly attempted to gather himself.

Cyborg and Beast Boy let out twin groans of disappointment. Starfire settled back onto the couch with a tired smile.

"My cheeks hurt from the laughter," Starfire gave a satisfied sigh.

"Cyborg," Robin said, taking a breath and walking around to the front of the couch, "Are our bugs still live on the Rig?"

The mood in the room changed drastically at Robin's words. Cyborg sat up with a conspiratorial grin, "You know it, man."

"Can you look in on Mad Stan's holding cell for me?" Robin asked. The other Titan's all focused on Robin.

"You got it," Cyborg nodded and pushed a few buttons on his forearm display. The holoscreen quickly blipped from the JNN evening broadcast to an overhead view of Mad Stan lying on a sparse twin bed inside a high-tech cell. The bomber appeared to be asleep on his side with his thumb lodged firmly in his mouth.

"Daww," Beast Boy smiled, "Look at dat wittle guy. Awl tuckered out."

Starfire giggled quietly into her hand.

"Full EM scan?" Robin asked. Cyborg complied. The view rapidly changed colors as Mad Stan's image warped through the entire electromagnetic spectrum. A wall of digital data scrolled up one side of the screen as the scan ran its course. After a few seconds it completed and the image of Mad Stan returned to normal.

"Any anomalies?" Robin asked, his voice gaining a slight edge.

"A couple implants," Cyborg replied as he peered down at his forearm display, scratching his head with his free hand. "At a glance, I'd say their design is pretty advanced, but they're obviously just medical. Monitoring nutrition and the circulatory system, not combative in any way. He does appear to be in a bit too good of shape. Ignoring some minor injuries from this morning, his overall musculature and bone structure suggest either advanced regenerative therapy or else low level genetic modification."

"Healing factor?" Beast Boy asked, poking his head directly in front of Cyborg's to look at the display. Cyborg shoved Beast Boy's head out of the way.

"No," Cyborg said bluntly. "I said he's still got those injuries from today, remember?"

"Oh, yeah," Beast Boy said, his ears twitching in mild confusion.

"So, what?" Raven asked, arching an eyebrow. "He's super-fit?"

"Well, he _is_ in good shape," Cyborg nodded, "But not _metahuman_ good shape. Really... it just looks like the guy completely lacks everyday wear and tear to his body."

"Hmm," Robin's eyemask narrowed. He stared hard at the image of the sleeping Mad Stan.

"Strange," Starfire said, cocking her head to the side, "Though such mundane medical procedures would be frivolent in the Vega System, they are quite normal among many other alien cultures. Yet, this level of eubiosis is quite uncommon for Earth, considering the current level of its scientific advancements. Perhaps the Mad Stan serves an otherworldly master?"

"I doubt it, Star," Robin growled, a scowled bleeding through his features.

"Uuuuuh, me too!" Cyborg trilled, his eyes widening, "Cuz I just took a closer look at the x-rays of our boy's implants and... look at this!"

Cyborg tapped his forearm and the holoscreen went x-ray and zoomed in on an implant. The image settled on a stylized 'W' set inside a circle.

"Hey," Beast Boy chirped up, "Where do I know that from?"

"It's the Wayne Enterprises logo," Raven said, her eyes widening in recognition.

Beast Boy snapped his fingers, "That's it!"

"Johnny Rancid did say that the Mad Stan hailed from the City of Gotham," Starfire added, holding up a finger.

"Only one problem," Robin growled. He turned back to the Titans and tossed something out from underneath his cape. A burnt chunk of plastic clattered across the sofa table, neatly avoiding the many spilt snacks, and settled before the seated Titans with an identical Circle-W facing up at them.

"The logo on Mad Stan's implants matches this one off what remained from one of his spent explosive charges," Robin brooded. "The problem is that it both _is_ and _isn't_ a Wayne Enterprises logo."

"Say huh now?" Cyborg asked, picking up the burnt plastic to inspect it closer.

Robin continued, his affect darkening, "Wayne Enterprises has different symbols for its many different subdivisions. This one most resembles the Wayne Tech logo, except it's not an exact match. The font of the W is slightly different, and the halo is noticeably thicker on both the explosive remains and Mad Stan's implants."

"Aaand," Beast Boy's ears fell, "You're sure it's not just a typo?"

"I'm sure," Robin's brow furrowed deeper, "After this morning's incident I went about recording the events and cataloging our evidence. Since we'd never encountered Mad Stan before, part of that entailed giving him an entry in our database, including his past history. I remembered Rancid introducing him as being from Gotham, and since I'm from Gotham and I'd never heard of him, I figured he must have been a newer rogue, possibly even a rookie. So I wasn't terribly surprised when there was no record of Mad Stan operating in Gotham, or anywhere else for that matter. Then I took the next logical step. He gave his name to police as Stanley Labowski, but there's no record of a Stanley Labowski fitting his description even having lived in Gotham."

"An alias, maybe?" Cyborg suggested, "Fake backstory?"

"I dunno," Beast Boy grinned, "I saw the way Old Mad Dog there was bawlin' when the police took him in. Didn't seem like he was lyin' to me."

"And it seems like an awful lot of trouble for no apparent reason," Raven added. "A clearly fake backstory that's backed up by a clearly fake logo? What would be the point? Especially since Stan's motivations seemed pretty one-dimensional."

"Add in the fact that neither Wayne Tech nor any of its direct competitors manufacture these types of medical implants or explosives, and things make even less sense," Robin growled.

For a moment the Titans pondered in silence, each one racking their brain for some sort of answer to this new riddle. However, before anyone could really get to thinking, Beast Boy broke the silence.

"Hey! Maybe there's more than one Gotham City?" Beast Boy offered with a goofy shrug.

"Really, Beast Boy?" Raven asked, leaning out from the couch to give him a stony glare.

"No," Robin held out a hand, his expression opening up, "No. Beast Boy's right."

"He is?" Raven asked.

"I am?" Beast Boy said at the same time.

"Maybe," Robin licked his lips. "Cyborg, filter out all broadcast transmissions then scan for radio waves in Mad Stan's cell."

"Picking up a weak but steady 225 gigahertz," Cyborg said after a moment of examination, his voice growing bright.

"Compare to background gamma radiation," Robin said.

"Yeah," Cyborg nodded, having already started. Cyborg's eyes widened and he shook his head, "Yeah, man, it fits! Not exactly, but it's within range! 250 keV!"

"Aaaand, how does that mean I was right?" Beast Boy asked, his ears drooping.

Robin turned to the green teen with a grin, "Mad Stan's not from our Gotham."

"That unique radiation signature is a telltale sign of free chronotons!" Cyborg explained with a beaming smile. "Beastie, you're a genius!"

"Tch, well yeah, no doubt," Beast Boy's ears perked up as he smugly lounged deeper into the couch.

"Mad Stan's a time traveler," Raven explained.

"Oooooh!" Beast Boy's facade fell as he grasped what was happening.

"This would explain his advanced physical health as well as his lack of a personal record and the technological and semiotic aberrations," Starfire counted on her fingers, then made a questioning gesture. "But there is still much we do not understand. How did the Mad Stan come to be in our time? In our city? And why did he come to be so?"

"I gotchyer why, Star," Beast Boy smiled, then half-morphed into a gorilla and bellowed, "BLOW IT ALL UP!"

"Inadvertently right again," Raven droned. "Mad Stan clearly didn't send himself back in time."

"Agreed," Robin nodded. "And I can't see how him teaming up with Johnny Rancid, Kitten, Fang, and Punk Rocket to terrorize Central Park would benefit anyone with the capacity to pull him through time. Rancid's a talented engineer, but time travel is leagues above his pay grade."

"So, what?" Cyborg shrugged, "He's just a temporal refugee from some sorta future bomb-plot gone bad?"

"Anything's possible at this point," Robin pinched his chin, "But we can't afford to make assumptions. Even if Mad Stan's behind bars, this could potentially be a serious threat to Jump City. Time travel isn't something to be hand-waved away. We need to investigate deeper."

"So we're breaking into the Rig again," Raven grinned slightly.

"If the Warden finds out, he will be most unhappy," Starfire said with a pensive expression.

"Oh puhlease!" Beast Boy rolled his eyes, "We's the ones who gave the Rig to the city so that they could actually hold on to all the creeps we catch for 'em! If they don't want us sneakin' in to interrogate bad guys they shouldn't make it so hard for us to see 'em in the first place!"

"Of course, they would have been none the wiser if SOMEONE hadn't snuck in on his own just to talk trash on Adonis," Raven growled, eyeing Beast Boy icily.

"I've already apologized for that, mama," Beast Boy lounged back into the couch. "Besides, guy deserved it."

"Everything's still good?" Robin asked Cyborg.

"Already looped the video feed of Stan's cell," Cyborg smiled back.

"Good," Robin nodded. "Raven?"

"Right," Raven stood and shuffled over to stand by Robin. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"

Raven threw her cloak wide as she completed her mantra. A cascade of blackshine billowed out, swallowed both her and Robin, and then propelled itself through the glass wall facing Jump City. As the unglowing mass phased through the transparent matter, it took on the shape of a giant bird. An ethereal cry echoed through twilight as Raven's soulself dove into the sparkling bay. Unseen by the public, the bird phased through a vast stretch of water as a massive shadow and then bled into the submerged foundations of a repurposed oil rig. The Rig could be seen from Titan Tower, but was much further out into the bay, well away from the idyllicisms of the beach and the rhythmic pulse of the city. It had long since stopped producing oil, and now was manned and armored with all manner of high tech equipment and elite personnel.

Unseen and undetected, Raven's soulself moved up through the foundations, phasing within walls and bulwarks to avoid detection. As the blackshine beast climbed level after level, it passed rows and rows of high-tech cells, some empty, most occupied, all remotely monitored. Eventually, the mystic force fountained out of the floor in Mad Stan's cell. The slumbering young man cringed in his sleep. Mad Stan rolled over in his bed as blackshine wings unfurled with a low, otherworldly ringing and enveloped the entirety of his cell. Mad Stan huddled into a tighter fetal position as an unnatural cold washed over him. No light penetrated the shadowed cocoon that now surrounded him, yet he and his bed were somehow illuminated by a pale glow that seemed to erased all color. Mad Stan began to whimper around his thumb as the cold caused bumps to raise on his arms. Robin stepped silently out of the living shadow, cast grey in the colorless light.

"Stanley Labowski," Robin called. The stern tones of his voice echoed weakly in the darkness.

Mad Stan's eyes popped open. He whirled about and scrambled to his feet, reflexively wiping the drool off his thumb. His eyes focused on Robin. He blinked purposefully a few times, and realized that Robin wasn't going away.

"R-Robin?" Mad Stan asked. He began rubbing his arms against the cold. "Is this a dream?"

Robin leered at the prisoner for a moment, then took a deliberate step forward.

"Whoa!" Mad Stan yelped as Robin approached him. He held out his hand and backed up onto his bed. Looking around frantically, Mad Stan began to come to grips with the impenetrable void that he seemed to be trapped in.

"Wh-What the hell?" Mad Stan whined, his voice sharp and energetic. "Where the hell are we?!"

Robin halted his approach just in front of Mad Stan's bed. The prisoner scrunched up as far away as possible, clutching his sheet to his chest like a shield.

"What the hell is this, man?!" Mad Stan asked, his heavy breath starting to fog in the increasing cold.

Robin's jaw set into a grim scowl. His eyemask narrowed as his cape fell forward about his shoulders. The living shadow seemed to bend in waves around them, sending off an eldritch warbling that echoed within itself.

"Whaaaaat?!" Mad Stan squealed weakly, wrapping himself tight in his sheets.

"I have questions," Robin finally spoke. Mad Stan's attention snapped to the Boy Wonder with laser-like focus. "If you give me answers, we can both get on with the evening."

Mad Stan blinked at Robin, then shouted, "GUARDS! GUAARDS! I WANNA SEE MY LAWYER! GUAAAARDS!"

Robin's eyebrow arched and an amused smirk cut across his face. Mad Stan's face fell as he took in the expression. Whimpering, the prisoner sunk down into the folds of his blanket.

"First question," Robin's smirk settled back into a scowl. "Where are you from, Stanley?"

"Gotham City," Mad Stan responded tentatively. He then grit his teeth and his nostrils flared. Mad Stan seethed under his sheets, "And DON'T call me Stanley!"

"Gotham City," Robin repeated. "You went a long way from home for your first bombing, Stanley."

"I SAID, DON'T CALL ME STANLEY!" Mad Stan erupted out from his blankets, flexing on top of his bed. "AND THIS ISN'T MY FIRST BOMBING!"

"I see," Robin said, his expression unchanged as he peered up at the enraged prisoner. "Then where was your first bombing, Stanley?"

"GRAH!" Mad Stan grunted as he threw a fist at Robin's face. In a split second, Robin took a diagonal step back, caught Mad Stan's blurring fist, and lunged downward, yanking Mad Stan's arm further forward and rolling the prisoner's body over his back. The combined force flipped Mad Stan onto the blackshine ground with a hard slap.

As Mad Stan's breath wheezed out of his chest, Robin pulled his arm into a painful locked position, torqued the man onto his stomach, and then placed a steel toed boot in between Mad Stan's shoulder blades.

"GHHH! GHHH! GHHH!" Mad Stan struggled to gasp, wind still knocked out of him, and he writhed in pain from Robin's hold. The Boy Wonder bent over, putting more weight into Mad Stan's back, and spoke softly.

"Maybe I didn't make the situation clear," Robin growled. "I have questions. You give me answers, or I hurt you until you do."

"GAAHHHH!" Mad Stan took a big gulp of air, and then, "AAAAAAAH!"

The prisoner's scream cut short with a yelp as Robin tweaked his armlock.

"Where was your first bombing, Stanley?" Robin asked.

"GOTHAM!" Mad Stan wailed, tears running freely down his face.

"Really?" Robin asked, "Gotham? That's what you're gonna go with? You do know who I am, right? I'd have heard about a bombing in Gotham City. You're lying to me, Stanley, and I don't like being lied to."

Robin increased the pressure on Mad Stan's arm, and the prisoner wailed in response.

"I SWEAR! I SWEAR!" Mad Stan sobbed, "I BOMBED GOTHAM BUT THE BAT STOPPED ME!"

"The Bat?" Robin barked, releasing his hold. Mad Stan curled up into a ball, sobbing. Robin's expression darkened, and he yelled, "THE BAT'S NEVER HEARD OF YOU!"

"WAIT!" Mad Stan yelled as Robin lunged for him. The Boy Wonder gripped Mad Stan by the front of his inmate's jumpsuit, hoisted him off the floor, and slammed him into the unglowing wall. Robin scowled ever deeper and brought his face within and inch of Mad Stan's.

"I don't like being lied to, Stanley," Robin whispered into the prisoner's wincing face. "Now I'm going to show you just how much."

"Please!" Mad Stan sobbed, his face contorted with terror. He grabbed desperately at the Boy Wonder's wrists. "Please! It wasn't your Bat! You don't know him!"

Robin sneered, "There's only one Bat in Gotham."

"Now!" Mad Stan pleaded, snot dripping from his nose, "But where I'm from there's another! A new one!"

"What do you mean?" Robin growled, tightening his grip.

Mad Stan moved to speak, but caught short, "You... You won't believe me."

Robin's eyemask narrowed, then he spun and threw Mad Stan to the floor.

"WAIT!" Mad Stan screamed as he recovered from the toss.

Robin pulled out his bo-staff, "You'd better start talking."

"OKAY! OKAY!" Mad Stan held up a hand in submission, "I'M FROM THE FUTURE!"

Robin raise his bo-staff with both hands and moved towards Mad Stan, growling, "Don't lie to me!"

"I'M NOT! I'M NOT! I CAN PROVE IT!" Mad Stan winced away bodily. Robin's movements shifted and he stabbed down with his bo-staff, caught the fabric just off the shoulder of Mad Stan's jumpsuit, and hoisted the prisoner off the floor once more, pinning him to the blackshine wall with an oddly echoing _clang_. Mad Stan tried to wince away from the bo-staff, emitting a high pitched whine as he failed to do so.

"How?" Robin smiled.

* * *

 _H here, saying thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you'll join me next week for CHAPTER THREE: THE MAN OF TOMORROW!_

 _What will the Titans find when they peer forward in time?_


	3. THE MAN OF TOMORROW

**TITANS FOREVER**

 **CHAPTER THREE:** _THE MAN OF TOMORROW_

The gibbous moon waxed over Jump City, yet only the brightest stars could be seen through its powerful light-haze. Cars, buses, and endless foot traffic still moved through the streets and the alleyways. Endless neon and blinding LEDs lit up downtown as bright as technicolor-daylight. The young and the restless dipped in and out of hole-in-the-wall venues and line-around-the-block clubs. The business district lulled with the late hour, but did not truly sleep. Lights shone out through glassed sky scrapers as the ambitious burnt midnight oil. Residential areas were quieter still. Some parents spent time in front of the TV. Some children hid under their covers and played on glowing screens. Some actually slept. On the far side of the bay, well enough away from the beach and Titan Tower so that neither could truly see the other, the docks had shut down for the night. Freighters and barges sat anchored on piers and a large sprawl of warehouses stood in seamist that glowed with the orange of fluorescent lights. The gentle sound of lapping waves filled the air, but only birds and the occasional security guard were there to hear it.

The T-Car rolled smoothly past the dockside warehouses. Fluorescence glinted off its chrome details. Its highbeams cut through the darkness and fog and its tail lights trailed red. The T-Car's cybernetics burned clean blue, and its sci-fi engine let off a steady humming that nearly mixed in with the hypnotic drone of the waves. Its brakes were silent as the high-tech transport came to a stop in front of a rather large warehouse. The engine whined-electronic as the lights cut out, and three of the T-Car's four doors popped open.

Cyborg stepped out from the driver's side and stood up to his full, imposing height. He scanned the docks with a red glowing eye, his expression and stance calm but alert. Robin came from the passenger's seat. He popped his neck and rolled his shoulders, eyeing the warehouse with a severe intensity. Twin rushings of air came quick as Starfire and Raven both _whoosh_ ed down out of the sky and landed softly on the cold pavement, kicking up mist in the process. Starfire's eyes reflected green in the low light. Raven's dark blue cloak could hardly be distinguished from the shadows.

"Aah!" Mad Stan yelped as he was tossed out from the back seat of the T-Car. He landed on the ground with a rough _thud_. High-tech cuffs bound Mad Stan's hands, and a thick collar surrounded his throat. A long, black leash issued from the back of Mad Stan's collar. The end of that leash was held by a massive, green gorilla that lumbered out of the T-Car and bared its fangs at the prisoner, a primal growl rumbling in its chest. Mad Stan gulped audibly and tried to scoot away from the gorilla, but the leash would only let him get so far.

"This is the place?" Robin asked.

"Y-yeah, man!" Mad Stan nodded his head vigorously. "Definitely! Or, I think so. Like I said, I got thrown out fast, and I was scared, so it's all a little blurry, but I definitely remember this warehouse, because it's so much bigger than all the others!"

Robin pulled out his bo-staff and extended it with a quick series of metallic clinks.

"High alert, Titans." Robin said, moving towards the warehouse.

"No doubt," Cyborg responded, his arm morphing into a sonic cannon. "Ain't playin' around with a time-rip."

"Indeed," Starfire hovered off the ground and lit up her fists with alien energy.

Raven merely glided across the ground after Robin, her cloak completely still.

"Hrrr," Beast Boy gorilla-growled and yanked on the leash, tugging a reluctant Mad Stan along beside him.

Orange mist flooded into the pitch black warehouse as Robin rolled up the loading bay door. A spotlight popped up out of Cyborg's shoulder and illuminated a great swath of the building's interior. Starfire floated higher into the air and summoned up a considerable welling of green energy, helping to push back the darkness. Beast Boy took a series of big sniffs with his gorilla nose. Raven moved slowly through the room, as if disjointed from the setting, her form and expression hidden entirely beneath her cloak. Robin scanned the surroundings with one long sweep of his head. Mad Stan stood quietly and looked down at his feet.

"Anything?" Robin asked.

"Infrared's got nothing, and none of my other censors show anything out of the ordinary," Cyborg said, "Floor looks like it might be shielded, though."

"Yeah! I mean, it must be!" Mad Stan spoke up, looking frantically from Cyborg to Robin. "I told you, they brought me up out of a hatch in the ground!"

"Where in the ground?" Robin glared at the prisoner.

Mad Stan gulped, "I dunno, man! They rushed me out so fast, a-and it was dark! I couldn't see anything!"

"You still haven't told us much about these people that escorted you out," Robin said.

"I told you everything I know, man!" Mad Stan urged. "They were big guys! Tall! Wearing some kind of armor! Two of 'em just picked me up like I was nothing and carried me out!"

"Carried you out from where?" Robin asked, rounding on Mad Stan. "What did you see as they carried you out? How many others did you see besides the two that carried you? What was their armor like? Did they have weapons?"

"I DON'T KNOW, MAN!" Mad Stan whined, tears welling up in his eyes.

Robin scowled, "Remember."

Beast Boy gripped the leash tighter and pulled Mad Stan back into his gorilla chest. The emerald ape bared his fangs and growled low in Mad Stan's ear.

"Awww maaan," Mad Stan winced, all the color draining from his face, "This is total _schwarbage_!"

Cyborg, Raven, and Starfire began searching about the warehouse's interior. Robin moved closer to Mad Stan, his eyemask narrowing.

Mad Stan took a big sniff and blinked his watery eyes, "Their armor was, I dunno, shiny, metallic. I didn't see any guns or anything, but, well, I don't think they needed any. When I showed up here, I couldn't really see much. When I got sucked outta Gotham, MY Gotham, there was so much light! Light like, I dunno! I can't describe it! Then I fell out into a room. I heard a guy talking and there was a platform, then they picked me up and, like, dashed me through a long hallway, a lot of turns and stuff! When they tossed me outside I was freaking out, man! I looked around to try and figure out where I was, but nothing made sense, so I booked it!"

"I don't believe you," Robin growled, "You used a large amount of high-grade explosives from your timeline when you attacked the park. Not the sort of thing you'd just have on you when falling through a random time-portal. It doesn't add up."

"But I did, man!" Mad Stan pleaded. He gulped and blinked before continuing, "I... I didn't wanna say anything, but I was on my way to set something up when it happened, okay? I'd just gotten parole a few weeks earlier and I'd planned out another demonstration! My detonators and my ordnance, I had it all strapped to me when it happened!"

"And these men that threw you out, they, what, just didn't care that you were carrying around hundreds of pounds of ready-made explosives?"

"Yeah, I mean, I dunno man! I guess not!" Mad Stan whined, making an exasperated gesture through his cuffs.

"You know what I think?" Robin asked. "I think you're lying to me."

"NO!" Mad Stan yelped, going down to his knees.

Robin leered down at him, "I think you're working for someone. I think you're luring us into an ambush."

"That's crazy, man!" Mad Stan pleaded. "How could anyone have planned all this?"

Robin just smiled.

Everyone in the warehouse stood at attention as a sharp _CREEEEK_ filled the air followed by a ringing _CLANG!_ The sound brought people's eyes to a far corner. Cyborg repositioned himself, cannonarm raised, and shined his spotlight at the noise. His light found Raven hovering next to a heavy hatch-door. The door had been opened, revealing a long flight of metal steps that descended into further darkness.

"Found it," Raven droned.

Starfire reached Raven first, tumbling effortlessly through the air. She lifted a green-lit fist in order to push back the shadows, but revealed only a greater expanse of hard, reflective steps. A draft of dry, chilled air wafted out of the hatch.

Cyborg whistled low as he and the others came up to the hidden entrance, "Spooky. Censors aren't giving me much right now, but the floor was definitely shielded. There's some electrical installations and what _could_ be traces of free chronoton radiation, but it's weak and just far enough off from the proper confluence that it's hard to tell. What we're looking for probably is down there but is just behind interference, cuz nothing else I know of gives off a signature even close to that."

"Let's say hello," Robin said, pulling out his bo-staff and descending down the steps. Without word or much apparent thought, the Titans followed in a particular order: Raven, Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy, with Mad Stan tagging along at the end. The Titans and their captive moved down the steps and then through an unlit tunnel. The lights from Cyborg and Starfire revealed that the hall was roughly eight foot wide and ten foot tall, though not truly modular in shape. Interlinked sections of reflective metal comprised the surfaces of the hallway, giving it the appearance of being covered in silver scales. The Titans moved at a quick but cautious pace, staying single file and keeping their noise to a minimum. Mad Stan followed along with great reluctance, all but crying. The path took them through several mandatory twists and turns before another lightsource appeared in the distance. At this sight, Robin held up a fist, and Cyborg and Starfire's lights immediately cut out. The light ahead of them was pure white and lit up the that section of hallway with reflective shine. Robin turned his head ever so slightly. Raven shook her hooded head. Cyborg held out a just-visible fist. Robin turned his gaze back to the front and held up his palm. The Titans moved as one toward the light. As they came into the white shine the corridor began widening gradually, its metal scales growing in size so that the hallway's own enlargement seemed organic. As the metal scales grew, the patterns they formed as they fit together became more complex. The Titans continued forward for several more seconds and the hallway quickly inflated to cavernous proportions.

In this cavernous area, the enlarged metal scales peeled purposefully off from the hall's surfaces and connected with each other in such a way that the hall became a sophisticated geometric pattern. That pattern effectively separated the hall into five different corridors, six including the one the Titans had come down, each branching out in a different direction. The Titans circled up, looking around with cautious curiosity.

"Does this architecture seem familiar to you, Star?" Robin asked.

"It does not," Starfire shook her head.

"Scanners are showing that the material is an unknown alloy. Looks like it's mostly iron and copper, but with some cadmium and other trace elements. It's an extremely heavy intermetallic compound, and it's not like anything else I've got a record for." Cyborg said, his face stern.

"Kinda reminds me of the inside of a beehive," Beast Boy said, morphing back into his normal form and looking around, "'Cept its not all six-sided."

"The way these corridors branch off organically from the main passage, it's a basic three dimensional yantra." Raven provided, still floating disjointed from the setting.

"Explain," said Robin.

"In Azarath," Raven began, "the Masters teach all children basic transdimensional geometry. Since Azarath itself is a transdimensional location, this is necessary for full mobility. It's sort of like learning to walk all over again, except this time through an Escher painting. This particular pattern isn't all that complex. It makes sense that a time traveler would have some understanding of these structures, though I can't see any reason for shaping your hideout like one."

"To creep people out, probably," Beast Boy shrugged.

"No joke, man," Mad Stan added, looking around with a worried expression.

"Does any of this seem familiar to you?" Robin asked.

"No," Mad Stan shook his head. "When the hallway was normal sized I recognized it, but this is just trippy."

"The free chronoton radiation is coming from that direction," Cyborg pointed down one of the corridors. "There's still some electrical interference, and the radiation signatures still aren't matching up quite right, but that's gotta be where they brought him in at."

"I wonder what's down these other ways," Beast Boy said, pivoting his ears .

"Whatever is, it'll have to wait for later," said Robin as he pulled four disks out from his utility belt. With a single motion, Robin tossed one at each of the large corridor openings. The discs flashed and exploded as they hit their marks, and then filled the air with hissing sounds. Mist quickly expanded and then solidified into thick barriers of solid ice, leaving only the way forward and the way back passable. Inside each wall of ice, a single sensor blinked idly. Robin turned to face the way forward, "We can't risk any sudden reinforcements from the rear. We need to move quickly."

The Titans moved down the corridor in a wider formation and at a faster pace than before. This tunnel twisted and turned as well, and before long it began shrinking back down until it reached the same eight-by-ten size that it had been at the entrance. Soon the Titans found themselves standing before a blocked path. The metallic scales were coned together in what was obviously a type of shut-door formation.

"The radiation's definitely coming from just on the other side," Cyborg said.

"Any idea how they opened it?" Robin asked, turning to Mad Stan.

"Uh-uh," Mad Stan shook his head, clearly quite uncomfortable.

"Uh, guys," Beast Boy frowned, "Not that I wanna be a downer, but shouldn't we have ran into someone by now?"

"Perhaps our enemy was in the other hallways," Starfire offered. "Or else they may be waiting to ambush us behind this barrier."

"One thing at a time," Robin said. "First we need to get to other the side."

"Then stand back," Raven droned as she floated forward. Mad Stan and the other Titans did as instructed. Raven raised her arms into the air, finally appearing out from under her too-still cloak. Her hands formed arcane gestures and her eyes burned grey beneath her hood.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"

The edges of Raven's cloak flared up and morphed into blackshine wings as her soulself leaked out of her physical form. The unglowing bird flew into the barrier, causing the strange metal to light up with Raven's eldritch power. For a moment nothing happened, and then all at once the barrier uncoiled with an ear-splitting **SCREEEECH**.

Blackshine coalesced and dimlit back into Raven's normal form. She held a hand out from under her cloak and droned, "After you."

Robin took point as the Titans moved into the room. A large, raised platform dominated the scene. A series of metallic tubes and wires came from the base of the platform and connected to a raised control panel that was full of bulky metal bulwarks and gleaming yellow displays. The Titans scanned the rest of the spacious room, finding it to be made of the same metallic scales as the rest of the hideout. Satisfied, they turned back to the platform and control panel.

"This has gotta be it, right?" Beast Boy asked, staring at the platform. Its surface buzzed a faint blue color, but it also sparkled with shades of other colors the way that oil does in sunlight.

"Oh yeah," Cyborg moved over to the massive control panel, pulled a chord from his wrist, and plugged it into a jack under the main screen. Cyborg considered his forearm display and said, "My time travel math isn't the best, and I doubt I have time for a crash course before whoever owns this place comes back from gettin' groceries. If we're lucky, there'll be a transmission history, and I can use what I know to determine which transmission brought our explosive guest here back from the future. I should then be able to reverse the process to send him home."

"And if we do not have the luck?" Starfire asked.

"Then we hope our mystery mad scientist and his goons are actually out on a nice long vacation," Cyborg answered.

"Wait," Mad Stan started, confusion mixing with the dread on his face. "You guys are gonna send me back?"

"Well it's not like we want you here," Raven droned.

"Yeah," Beast Boy added. "We got enough crazy talkin' fools destroyin' public property."

"But," Mad Stan blinked, "But you guys kidnapped me from that prison. Due process was definitely still a thing back then, or now, I guess. Doesn't this, you know, violate that?"

Robin grinned at the bomber of tomorrow, "We could put you back in that cell if you'd prefer."

"No! No," Mad Stan held up his cuffed hands. "I'm good with this plan!"

"Alright," Cyborg smiled. "So do y'all want the good news or the good news first?"

"The good news," Raven droned.

"This baby does have a transmission history," said Cyborg. "As for the good news: there are a very limited number of transmissions. And from what I know of the math, and just comparing the sheer difference in data size, our boy here is the only actual time traveler this thing has spit out!"

"Really?" Robin asked, his eyemask widening. "You're sure?"

"Yup," Cyborg nodded. "It seems like this thing can look into the future too, which I _do_ know is a whole different mess of transtemporal sets. It also takes a far smaller transmission of data than physical time travel. There's only been one transmission that had both an appropriately huge amount of data AND the appropriate sets. Also, I'm pretty sure this thing has a legit rewind button! Hang on, I wanna try something just to make sure. Robin, toss something inert onto the platform for me."

Robin reached into his utility belt, pulled out a lockpick, and set it on the glowing platform.

"Alright, everybody stand back," Cyborg typed a quick sequence into his forearm display. "And cross your fingers!"

With a final tap of his metal finger, the platform buzzed to life. Its blue glowing filled the room and overpowered the white lights completely. The oil shades glittered brightly and began to swirl in three-dimensions. The platform itself seemed to somehow expand and bow inward, as if space and time were zooming in on it through a fish-eyed lens. The metal scales on the walls of the room began to move slightly, forming rigid patterns and straight lines. Robin's lockpick did not move at all, but the blue light and the swirling shades seemed to blink it in and out of sight. Before long, the distorted effect seemed to 'bounce' and the lockpick disappeared. The oil shades stopped their spinning and glittering, and merely flushed down to the center of the distortion. The metal scales returned to their normal state. The platform shrank to its previous size and flatness. The blue glow diminished to its normal buzzing hum. The whole processes had produced no sound.

"Duuuuude," Beast Boy groaned.

"I now have the headache," Starfire rubbed a finger into her temple.

"Did you see the walls?" Raven asked. "That explains the shape of this place. It responds to manipulations of the fabric of spacetime."

"Yeah," Cyborg nodded. "I imagine its for the sake of efficiency. The machine wouldn't necessarily need this type of surroundings to do what it does, but I think this place probably helps it conserve a whole lotta energy. Now just a sec, I wanna make sure that thing went through in one piece. Hold on, this is probably gonna get weird too."

Cyborg pressed a different sequence into his forearm display and the platform lit up again, but this time the glow did not envelope the room as it had before. The oil shades glittered again, but this time they did not swirl. Instead, they rose up from the platform and expanded into a vertical cylinder. The walls jittered slightly, but did not begin forming patterns.

The glittering shades faded and the cylinder seemed to vanish, replaced with a vertical hole-in-space that seemed to be covered by a thin blue film. Beyond this film the Titans saw a vision of a dystopian city. A red sky night stretched out over a mangled cityscape. The sounds of sirens and unfamiliar music flooded the room. Nearby, in a way that it seemed like the Titans might be able to reach out and grab it, Robin's lockpick set on a concrete surface: the rooftop of a building.

"I'd know that sky anywhere," Robin's eyemask narrowed.

"Yup," Mad Stan grinned, hope filling face for the first time that night. "That's home alright."

"THAT is the City of Gotham?" Starfire asked. "Robin, I did not know you were from such an inhospitable place."

"It doesn't look _quite_ that bad in the present," Robin frowned.

"Well alright!" Cyborg cheered and fiddled with his display. The hole to another time seemed to 'fill in' with the glittering shades, which then immediately fell back onto the platform's surface. The walls stopped jittering. Cyborg looked at Mad Stan with a big smile and said, "Let's do the time warp again, baby!"

"UNH!" Beast Boy did a dancing jump to the left as Starfire giggled in the background, "Love that song!"

Mad Stan opened his mouth, but Raven cut him off, saying, "Don't ask. Just walk."

"Right," Mad Stan said and marched up to the platform. He turned back around to look at the Titans and said, "So, about these handcuffs?"

"The keys are in your front pocket," said Robin, pointing to where they dangled.

"When did-"

"Not important. Time travel now. Try not to blow things up in the future," Cyborg said bluntly as he typed a familiar sequence.

"Buh-Byeee!" Beast Boy waved dramatically as the room lit up in blue. "Sayonara! Arrivederci! See you never!"

The glittering shades began to swirl in full space, but their movements grew larger and more energetic than before. The fish-eyed distortion hit the platform, but far from merely bowing it, the platform slowly twisted down-and-up-out into a sphere around Mad Stan. The Titans all stepped back, wincing at the sight. The metal scales on the walls jumped into rigid patterns, then into straight horizontal lines, and then smoothed out into a flush surface. Mad Stan seemed to float in place, completely frozen. The blue light and swirling shades caused pieces of him to fade in and out of view, before the bubble 'bounced' and Mad Stan vanished. In quick succession the symptoms of the time travel faded, and the room returned to normal.

"Whew," Beast Boy sighed with relief, a slightly sick look on his already green face, "Glad that's over with."

"Now we just have to figure out what to do with this thing," Raven droned, staring at the machine.

"We should-" Robin began, but before he could finish his thought, the white lights cut out, leaving the Titans in darkness save for the soft glow from the platform.

In a reflexive motion the Titans all-but-blindly leapt into a circle, their backs all facing inward. This instantaneous reaction was fortunate, as the sound of several heavy, metallic clangs immediately rang throughout the room. A few dozen small red lights pierced through the darkness. As the red lights rushed forward, the Titans realized they were eyes.

Heavy footfalls came from all sides and the Titans scrambled as they met their unseen foe. Starfire and Raven took to the air. Beast Boy slithered through the enemy legs as a python. Robin heard the rushing air of a large fist and blindly vaulted over the shoulders of his opponent. The punch produced a high-pitched ringing as it connected with the metallic floor. Robin flipped through the darkness and fired his grappling hook, shouting, "Androids!"

"RAAAUUGH!" Cyborg bellowed and took a knee as the mechanical menaces zoomed in on him from all sides. Both of his hands shifted into sonic cannons and he slammed them together over his head. This generated a shockwave that rapidly expanded outward, knocking all the androids onto their backs.

"Grraaa!" Robin cried as he dove from the ceiling and produced his bo-staff. The Boy Wonder landed with the staff striking an android right between its glowing red eyes. Robin was immensely relieved to feel and hear the crunch of his staff as it passed through his opponent's metal skull. Robin flipped off the downed android, his staff trailing sparks and wires. He immediately began attacking another nearby android with a series of quick jabs and swipes, picking it apart at the joints.

Starfire circled the scene from the air and pelted the enemy with low-strength starbolts, unwilling to cause too much damage to enemies that shared such close quarters with her less durable comrades. All the same, her energy proved more than enough to damage and stagger the androids, allowing the other Titans room to work.

Beast Boy swept a few androids off their feet as a twisting python, and then crushed and crunched them as a gigantic rolling alligator. Raven moved through the darkness unseen, the sound of sheering metal the only sign of her presence as she sliced androids apart, one by one, with razor-thin planes of blackshine. Robin whirled like a mad dervish, blindly crushing robotic joints with his staff and slicing through metal skin with a fist full of bird-a-rangs. Cyborg took a more direct approach and pounded his enemies to pieces with his huge metal fists, their movements plain as day to his own optic censor.

The Titans' savage initiative immediately devastated the ambushing forces, but did not wipe them out all together. Those androids which could disengage did so quickly, and then regrouped as their brethren were slaughtered. These androids held out their hands in the darkness. Their forearms opened as they did, revealing laser weapons.

Beams of red light cut through the black as laserfire rained on the Titans. The androids still in melee range were gunned down by friendly fire. Several beams targeted both the platform and the control panel, causing them to briefly light up the room as they exploded. The Titans all responded in their own way to the red-tinted volley. Raven shielded herself with blackshine. Beast Boy morphed into a mouse. Cyborg took a knee and held up his hands for defense, tanking the shots head on. Robin dove to the side, tuck-and-covering underneath his cape. Starfire received the brunt of the assault, and grunted in pain as the lasers slammed into her. Fortunately, her alien biology made the weaponized energy no more harmful than wasp stings, and so an enraged Starfire led the counter strike.

Starfire's eyes overflowed with righteous fury. Her warcry echoed as she loosed her eyebeams and cut through nearly half of the android line with a single explosive sweep. This was all the cover the other Titans needed to finish the job. Robin let fly a fist full of explosive discs. Raven sent out a stream of warbling blackshine. Cyborg fired off his signature sonic cannon. The three attacks each hit within a split second of each other, and the explosive force rocked the entire room. For good measure, Beast Boy cat-leapt high into the air and then shifted into an orca whale, crashing down with massive force on the last few androids standing.

With battle still ringing in their ears, the Titans did not hear the clanking footsteps of a man running out of the room. But, by the dancing light of the burning equipment, Robin caught the movement of it out of the corner of his eye. Before the fleeing culprit could make it through the doorway, Robin flung a bolo which swished rapidly through the smoking air and thwipped around the man's body several times, binding him and throwing him to the ground.

"OI! NO FAIR!" grunted a bespectacled, red-haired man in out-dated attire. "THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ME QUICK GETAWAY!"

"Mad Mod!" Robin growled as he swooped over his catch. "I have to admit, I wasn't expecting you. No Union Jacks, for one thing."

"Sorry, love," Mad Mod grunted as he managed to roll to his back. "But the machine didn't take to the usual bits and bobs. But if yer finally feelin' like takin' in some culture, you might take shufty at the loo, though I think you froze 'er over. Still, ol' Moddy dressed 'er up nice. After all, I gotta feel proper British when I make me French mistake!"

"What was your game, Mod?" Robin asked, hefting the villain off the ground. "Time travel? Bomb plots? What's your connection to Johnny Rancid and his friends?"

"Well," Mad Mod looked to the side for a moment. "I fink one 'o his lads is a Brit. Sorta Sid Vicious if he looked a bit worse an' played a bit bet'ah. Other than that I got no ties, save for pullin' Bomber Boy outta the bleedin' future, innit? An' that was just a test run! See if the bloomin' thing worked like it shoulda."

Robin's eyemask narrowed, "You just happened to pull an armed and incredibly dangerous terrorist out of the future as a test run?"

Mad Mod smiled, "Well, if you gotta do a test, might as on make it interestin', yeah?"

"Why time travel?" Robin growled. "That's a far cry from your usual hypnosis schemes."

"Just branchin' out, love," Mad Mod shrugged in his bonds. "You see any liver spots on me? Eh? Any gray hairs? Eh? No! Stealin' youth. Passin' on age. It's just a tick offa the ol' time travel. Figured I might finally find me an edge 'gainst you sordid little snots."

"Why did you let us use it just now?" Robin asked. "Why wait to spring your trap until after we'd sent Mad Stan back?"

"Ain'tchoo payin' attention, boy?" Mad Mod cocked an eyebrow at the Boy Wonder. "Whole design needs testin'. Your own man said the thing ain't been used much."

"You could have sent Stan back as soon as you brought him here," Robin growled. "You could have done plenty of experiments by now."

"Limited budget, love," Mad Mod sighed. "Takes an awful amount o' juice to power that thing. This whole place was built to make it easier. After each test I run the numbers, try an' make each test more efficient than the last. Figured your man would know more'n me about it, thought I'd see how he did things, but turns out I shoulda known bet'ah! He did things fast and sloppy, prolly ran this place's batteries down to a tenth or less. You lot are lucky it even worked on the lad. Now is that enough wiv the inquisition?"

Robin's eyemask narrowed, "For now."

"We got the fires out," Cyborg said, coming up behind Robin with his shoulder spotlight on. "But the androids got the time machine good. I'm not sure there'll be much of anything to salvage from it."

"Though that may be for the better," Starfire added, floating up beside him.

"So, let me get this straight," Beast Boy leaned on Cyborg. "Mad Mod was the bad guy, and I _didn't_ get covered in my own drool even once? Nice!"

"Night's still young," Raven droned as she encased Mad Mod in a blackshine bubble and began levitating him down the corridor. The other Titans followed suit, their guard still up but substantially less so than it had been on their entry. By the time they reached the T-Car, the teens were arguing good naturedly over what kind of pizza to get. A little more than an hour later, the Titans handed Mad Mod off to the police with greasy hands and good cheer. The JCPD processed the supervillain with the requisite care, got the approval for special holding conditions, and made the move out to the Rig.

The sun was rising by the time a quartet of space-armored officers escorted Mad Mod into the Rig's entry yard. Orange clad maniacs and containment-suited monsters roamed the yard; some yelling, some fighting, some laughing, some plotting. A few called out to Mad Mod. He responded to them with chipper nods and ethnic quips. Just before the guards escorted Mad Mod into the Rig proper, the villain saw something that caught his eye. In a far off corner of the yard, Mad Mod saw a straight-jacketed young man that he knew very well could not be there. The young man's eyes bulged massively as he fought against his restraints, his raspy voice shouting over and over: "BLOW IT ALL UP! BLOW IT ALL UP! BLOW IT ALL UP!"

A sinister grin slid across Mad Mod's crooked teeth as the Rig's walls pushed the yard and the wailing _something_ out of sight.

"Well ain't that a scream?" Mad Mod asked himself. He began to laugh in a deep, knowing cadence, and the guards had no idea that it was anything out of the ordinary. To them it was just the crazed cackling of yet another mad man. They ignored it entirely as they checked Mad Mod in to what they believed to be their prison.

* * *

 _H here, saying thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you'll join me next week for CHAPTER FOUR: WHAT'S OURS IS MINE!_

 _Jump City is a town like no other. You never know what the next day might bring. For the Titans, finding out is a way of life._


	4. WHAT'S OURS IS MINE

**TITANS FOREVER**

 **CHAPTER FOUR:** _WHAT'S OURS IS MINE_

The open floor plan in Titan Tower made its kitchen little more than a large section of what the blueprint called the commons, but what the Titans themselves just called the living room. Over their years of residence the Titans had become marginally better at keeping the kitchen clean, or rather keeping it from being a complete and utter mess. Rinsed but unwashed dishes filled merely half the sink, and the various countertops were only mildly dirty. Meals tended to be communal at the Tower, and the same held true for the cooking. And so it was a regular occurrence when the elevator doors dinged open and Cyborg walked in carrying a plate of freshly grilled steaks.

"WHO WANTS STEAK, BABY?" Cyborg asked as he set the massive platter on the counter. "We got TERIYAKI! BARBECUE! THAT GOOOD SWEET HONEY! CHIPOTLE! And, of course, ALL cooked to a tantalizing medium rare! MMM-MMM! I LOVE it!"

"Oooooh!" Starfire squealed excitedly as she stirred a massive bowl full of mysterious mush. She floated over to the platter and eyed the glistening meats, "I am most excited for the steaks of the teriyaki!"

"Nice choice," Cyborg nodded. "Not that there's a BAD choice here! I tenderized these babies last night, then bagged them with the sauce so that they soaked up all that delicious flavor for almost a WHOLE DAY before I even started grillin'."

"It's still just carcass, bruh!" Beast Boy shrugged near the oven. He put on oven mitts as the stove timer rang, then pulled out at huge pan of steaming casserole. "You want REAL cuisine? Take a look at my three-bean, spinach and asparagus casserole, yo! I got them bomb ranch mashed tatos in there too!"

"Oh good!" Cyborg made a show of whipping his brow in relief, "I was afraid you were gonna serve some of that nasty tofu again."

"Hey!" Beast Boy barked as he set his plate down on the counter well away from Cyborg's steak platter. "When are you gonna lay off the tofu?"

"When is tofu gonna stop bein' nasty?" Cyborg raised his human eyebrow. "I like veggies, bro, but you gotta treat 'em like actual veggies for them to be good! Ain't no sense in tryin' to make a bean taste like a burger!"

"Are you two ever going to stop having this argument?" Raven asked as she levitated a blackshining pitcher, pouring beverages.

Cyborg and Beast Boy gave Raven an incredulous look.

Raven sighed and said, "Didn't think so."

"Hey guys," Robin called as he walked in from the hallway. "Not late, am I?"

"Nearly," Raven droned as she levitated plates and silverware onto the counter.

"But not quite!" Starfire beamed as she set her mush-bowl down in between the steaks and the casserole.

"Where were you, man?" Cyborg asked. "You were supposed to be making desert!"

"Sorry, got caught up with work," Robin smiled and set a large folder he was carrying on the sofa table. "I'll buy us all desert later."

"Bruh," Beast Boy said, giving Robin's folder a tired look, "The 'No-Work-At-Meals' rule is kinda pointless if we know there's business directly after the meal."

"Rrright," Robin rubbed the back of his head as he walked into the kitchen space. "My bad. It's not anything urgent. I've just been going over the police report of their search through Mad Mod's latest lair. They just got it to me earlier today."

"Did they find anything interesting?" Raven asked.

"Hel-loooo?" Beast Boy threw his arms wide. "What part of 'No-Work-At-Meals' do you two not understand?"

"Only what we expected," Robin said to Raven, taking a seat at a counter stool. "A few different workshops; some for his androids, some for the time-machine itself, though they haven't actually managed to piece together that it was for a time machine. There was a drafting room that had the blueprints for the lair's strange design, but no evidence of where the unknown metallic alloy came from. There was also a small living quarters, with a bathroom every bit as tacky as you're all probably imagining."

"So it sounds like that's the end of it," Beast Boy groaned as he set down a fruit tray, "And that means we can stop with all this work talk and eat, right?"

"The mysteries of space and time unraveled by a criminal mad man and all Beast Boy's concerned about is food," Raven droned. "What else is new?"

"What?" Beast Boy asked, "I'm hungry, mama!"

"Then let's dig in!" Cyborg smiled and loaded up his plate with no less than four steaks (one of each flavor.) Beast Boy eschewed the steaks altogether and opted instead for extra helpings of veggie casserole. The rest of the Titans gathered more balanced meals onto their own plates. Starfire squeeze out a small dish full of mustard, but before she could dip anything in it five alarms chorused in sync, one from each of the Titans' communicators. Of note, the Tower alarm did not go off, signaling that there was not an emergency in progress. Still, Beast Boy's reaction to the crime alert was swift and furious. Beast Boy hitched his communicator off his belt, flipped open the screen, and bellowed as a half-gorilla:

"NO WORK AT MEAAAALS!"

"Stop it!" Raven swatted his communicator to the ground. Cyborg and Starfire both started eating their meals at a rapid pace.

Robin flipped open his own communicator, cleared his throat apologetically, and said, "Hello, Detective Slack. What can we do for you?"

A red tinted visage peered out from darkness on Robin's communicator screen. Detective Slack had a long face and a tight buzzcut. He cocked an eyebrow at Robin and asked, _"Is this a bad time?"_

"It's never a bad time for justice, Detective," Robin answered. "What's going on?"

One edge of the detective's mouth twitched up in a small smile, _"Nothing urgent, of course, but we've got a set of robberies that I think are going to end up your alley. So I thought I'd skip as much of the song and dance as possible and just cut right to letting you know."_

Beast Boy grumbled at this as Cyborg finished off his eighth steak and Starfire went back for seconds of everything. Raven chewed a small forkful of casserole.

"We appreciate it," Robin nodded. "What are the facts of the case?"

 _"Well,"_ Detective Slack's red-lit face frowned on the communicator screen. _"My squad and I are out in Register Heights, used to be Turing Hill?"_

"Right," Robin nodded. "A high class residential area just below the tech sector. Changed owners and got an upgrade late last year."

 _"Exactly,"_ Slack nodded. His red face blipped off the screen and the view of a bare room replaced it. _"I'm currently standing in 155 Register Heights, the summer home of Mr. Augustus Freeman out of Dakota City, Illinois. I understand that this was a rather lavishly furnished home, but as you can see now it's completely empty. Mr. Freeman is currently out of state, but called to inform us of the robbery in spite of that. Though the robber did not set off any alarms, Mr. Freeman apparently noticed his property missing when he checked in via hidden cameras, which he tells us he does every day."_

"I see," Robin's eyemask narrowed. "But the cameras didn't pick up the intruder?"

 _"That's just it,"_ Slack's voice took on a frank edge. _"The cameras weren't there to check in on. Robin, this place has been picked clean. I mean there isn't a single scrap of clothing, furniture, anything. There's not even a damn fork in the kitchen or toilet paper in the bathroom. The_ lightbulbs _are all gone. And we've picked up absolutely no trace of our culprit. But that's not the weirdest part."_

Cyborg chugged a gallon of milk loudly in his desperation to finish his meal. Starfire had forgone utensils entirely and now poured her own mystery mush directly into her mouth out of the bowl. Beast Boy had joined in the frenzied dinner and now munched on half of the fruit tray inside of chimpanzee cheeks. Raven rinsed her dish quietly in the background. Robin nodded for the detective to continue.

 _"This wasn't the only robbery like this today in Register Heights,"_ Slack said, _"About fifteen minutes after we got here, we get word of another hit just a few streets over. The Pugsleys of 213 Register Heights had spent the afternoon shopping at the Soto Strip. When they left, their house was full of more than a million in hard cash, another million in gold and precious gems, and what they assure us is over three million dollars worth of other assets. And, just like Mr. Freeman's place, it looked as if it had never even been lived in. And the real kicker is that Register Heights is a gated community. The guards didn't let anyone in out of the ordinary and the video at the gate doesn't show anything unusual."_

"And you've checked their roofs and yards for signs of landing and takeoff?" Robin asked.

The communicator screen blipped back to Detective Slack's rather amused expression, _"Look, I know I wasn't trained by the Bat, but I am a detective in the_ Jump City _Police Department. I'm not Barney Fife over here. My men and I have dealt with anti-grav, hoverbikes, jetpacks, self-powered flight, you name it. We couldn't find anything."_

"Of course," Robin nodded with a grin. "You're right, it sounds like a job for the Titans. We're lucky they sent you out on this call, Detective. Robberies aren't normally your thing."

 _"These victims are rather high profile,"_ Slack said. _"The Chief wants this over quick."_

"Right," Robin grinned. "Sit tight, Detective. The Titans will be there inside of 15."

Slack's red lit face nodded as Robin shut and pocketed his communicator. "Okay guys- whoa."

Robin's eyemask went wide at the sight before him.

"Wwwwwuuuuhhh," Cyborg moaned as he leaned over the counter, his face a portrait of shame done in whole milk and steak sauce. He gripped his bulging robotic gut with both hands.

"Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!" Starfire grunted as she used her prehensile tongue to lick the steak platter clean.

Beast Boy ape-screeched as he tore through the fridge for more food.

Raven stood to the side sipping on a small glass of ice water.

"And now I remember why we have the 'No-Work-At-Meals' rule," Robin said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Don't say it," Cyborg whispered, his voice trembling with the effort, staring at Robin with puppy-dog eyes.

Robin gave Cyborg a rueful grin as he slid off his stool and said, "Titans! Go!"

"Noooooo," Cyborg tremble-whispered to himself, closing his eyes in regret as his stomach gurgled.

Still, Cyborg rose from the table, as did the other Titans, and they made their way out into the city with an ease born from years of practice. Starfire, Raven and Beast Boy all took to the evening sky, rising with an updraft of warm beach air to soar over the towering glass buildings of Jump City. Cyborg and Robin rode the elevator down at high-speed to the garage. They were each in their vehicles and roaring out into the city in a matter of seconds. Like a nerve signal to the brain, the news spread across Jump City in a few short moments; the Titans were in the skies and on the streets. As the Titans passed people tried snapping pictures from walkways and leaned from their apartment windows to take video. The talented ones managed to catch blurs of color. Many did not need to see the Titans or receive a notification to realize that they were on the move. Both the T-Car and the R-Cycle had devices that manipulated the city's traffic lights to help them move more swiftly and safely through the streets, and though the effects on civilian traffic were minor, their ripples were felt and recognized by commuters in the coming minutes as traffic adapted to accommodate the heroes.

The Titans beamed through the city in a loose formation that one would have needed a birds eye view to appreciate. Around them Jump City shifted from the heaven-grasping glass of the business district to the concrete monoliths of the tech sector. Many of the tech sector skyscrapers still gleamed and glistened, having their fair share of reflective glass, but here they reflected neon signs and LED billboards as much as they did sunlight. As the Titans moved South, the cityscape opened up slightly, and in a small neighborhood just off a high-class shopping center, Register Heights rested on top of a hill. Robin's voice buzzed through their communicators as the Titans approached the walled community.

"Alright Titans, if Detective Slack didn't uncover any evidence at the scenes of the crime, then there's unlikely to be much evidence there. That means we start with the surrounding area. Star, sky eye the place. Look in particular for signs of egress. Beast Boy, inspect the wall for any breaches or modifications. Cyborg, scan for irregular energy signatures and monitor local communications for anything out of the ordinary. Raven, see if there's any magical interference at play. I'll meet with Slack and coordinate our efforts."

The other's Titans buzzed Robin back.

 _"You got it, man."_

 _"Understood!"_

 _"Right."_

 _"CAW!"_

The R-Cycle made a sharp turn off the street and onto the Register Heights drive. Robin's cape settled to his back as he slowed and waved at the guard booth. They waved back and opened the gate. Robin sped through the gate as soon as there was a wide enough birth and tore through the private roads of Register Heights. In a matter of seconds he came to a stop in front of a building that was surrounded by space armored police officers. Hulking police transports occupied the road in front of the house and the officers themselves mulled about the expansive yard and upscale residence. They had their ion rifles strapped magnetically to their backs and their red-lit visors recorded everything they saw. Each officer's armor had a badge on the shoulder that display a single number. Most were 4s and 5s. Robin dismounted and removed his helmet, hanging it on one of the R-Cycle's handlebars. The young hero walked directly passed the police officers without hesitation, drawing some glances and muffled comments along the way. When Robin entered the house he immediately spied an officer with a shoulder badge bearing the number 8. Other than this number, the officer appeared indistinguishable from the rest.

"Detective Slack," said Robin, walking towards the officer with the 8 on his shoulder.

"Robin," Slack's voice buzzed through his helmet. "I'm feeling better already."

"I take it your men have been canvassing witnesses?" Robin asked.

"Of course," Slack nodded. "Although searching for witnesses is more like it. No one seems to have noticed anything."

"I see," Robin nodded. He looked around the interior of 155 Register Heights. "You weren't kidding, Detective. This place looks like the burglars might have even deep cleaned it before they left."

"I've never seen anything quite like it," Slack admitted.

"The other home," Robin crossed his arms. "The Pugsleys, you said they were gone shopping. How long were they out?"

"Roughly three and a half hours," Slack answered.

"So that's the maximum amount of time our culprit could have taken to complete his crime," Robin pinched his chin.

"Right," Slack nodded. "But of course that's ridiculous. Not only gathering everything in a house, but moving it unseen, and covering your tracks without a trace? Any one of those alone would take more than three hours."

"Maybe," Robin's eyemask narrowed.

"You know something," Slack observed.

"I hope not," Robin frowned and pulled out his communicator. "Cyborg?"

Cyborg's face lit up on the screen from his position in the T-Car's driver's seat. _"Sup?"_

"Any readings yet?" Robin asked.

 _"Nothing out of the ordinary,"_ Cyborg shook his head. _"And so far nobody's talking about anything unusual either."_

"And you did check for gamma-radio confluences?" Robin asked.

Cyborg's expression shifted slightly. Detective Slack noticed. Cyborg couldn't keep a conspiratorial tone out of his voice as he answered, _"Yeah, that was one of the first things I checked for. Nadda."_

"Right," Robin nodded. "Thanks. Keep me posted."

 _"You got it, man."_ Cyborg nodded.

Robin closed his communicator and pursed his lips.

"Gamma-radio confluences?" Detective Slack asked.

"Would have suggested time dilation," Robin explained briefly, pocketing his communicator and moving deeper into the house. Detective Slack watched Robin for a moment before following after him.

"Tell me about Augustus Freeman," Robin asked as they entered a spotless and empty kitchen. Gaps for the missing stove and refrigerator filled the kitchen with a stark vacuity.

"He's forty-five years old and a successful civil rights lawyer. Despite representing clients nationwide and having the funds to live anywhere, Mr. Freeman keeps his permanent residence in his hometown of Dakota City. Also, guy's built like a linebacker."

"And the Pugsleys?"

Slack shrugged, "Trust-fund cases. They're both children of successful careermen who took smart stock options. Jump City natives. She's a mediocre artist. He's a day-trading whale who likes to pump and dump cryptos in his free time, writes a blog about it."

"Do the Pugsleys and Mr. Freeman share a history?" Robin asked.

"No," Slack shook his helmeted head, the red light of his visor tinting the room around them. "They don't tend to run in the same social circles either, especially since Mr. Freeman only stays in this house for a week or two out of the year, so I'm not seeing much in the way of mutual enemies."

"Hmm," Robin crossed his arms.

 _"Robin?"_ Starfire's voice buzzed out of his communicator.

"What is it Star?" Robin answered.

 _"I believe I have found the point of egress for the culprits."_ Starfire said, framed on the screen by the evening sky. She held up a delicate golden chain necklace with a diamond pendent. _"I discovered this in a large alleyway nearly a half mile northeast of the Register Heights. The alley sits behind a market that is in the process of renovation, and possess a clearly widened sewer grate. It also shows other signs of recent activity, such as the footprints and other markings. I believe the burglars became careless once they believed themselves to be far enough away from the scene of their crime."_

"Good work, Star!" Robin grinned. "Have the others rendezvous at your location. I'll be there shortly."

 _"Understood,"_ Starfire smiled and signed off.

"You Titans work fast as ever," Slack commented. "But it's strange that they'd be meticulous enough to avoid leaving even the smallest of traces, and then just leave a piece of loot laying around their escape hatch."

"Might be a trap," Robin conceded. "But this _is_ Jump City."

"Point taken," Slack nodded. "So what, maybe it's a group of thugs who've managed to get their hands on some sort of power or device that covers their tracks for them, and then once they deactivate it they're just your usual sloppy criminals?"

"That could be part of it," Robin shrugged. "But it doesn't account for the speed factor-"

"Detective Slack!" another officer rushed into the kitchen, cutting Robin off.

"What is it, Daniels?" Slack asked.

"There's been another hit!" the officer said. "But not here in Register Heights. Apartment 857 of the East Wayne Highrise!"

"That's halfway across the city," Slack growled.

"And that changes things," Robin's eyemask narrowed. He produced his communicator and a four way split screen of his team lit up the display. "Alright Titans, there's been another hit, this one in the Wayne Highrises. Starfire, Raven, I want you to investigate that incident. Keep an eye out for more points of egress. Cyborg and Beast Boy, meet me at the original rendezvous point. I'm on my way."

Robin pocketed his communicator as the other Titans sounded off. Turning to Detective Slack, Robin said, "You may want to call in back up. Considering the rate at which these robberies are being uncovered, I doubt our thieves are done tonight. Keep me up to date on any new incidents."

"Roger," Slack nodded to the Titan and turned to give orders to his subordinate.

Robin blurred out of the house and mounted his bike in a split second. He flew back through the residential roads the way he had come and not did not even bother to wait for the gate, instead hitting a booster that launched the R-Cycle some twelve feet in the air over the gate. Robin pulled and pressed in a precise fashion, causing the R-Cycle to twist-turn in mid air so that he landed respositioned on the street, and sped directly towards his destination. Not even a minute had passed by the time Robin came to a swerving stop in the designated alleyway. Cyborg and Beast Boy already stood away from the T-Car, inspecting a sewer grate.

"What've we got?" Robin asked, approaching his teammates..

"Not a lot," Cyborg said, looking up from his forearm display. "Not picking up any radiation or even any chemical emissions aside from the norm. There is something weird about the footprints, though."

Robin looked down and found a cluster of footprints left in the dust and dirt in the alleyway. After a split second of scanning, Robin announced, "They're all the same size."

"Yeah," Beast Boy frowned, "And I can't be hundred percent sure, y'know, with the old-town sewer right here and everything, but I'm only picking up one dude's scent."

"Hmm," Robin knelt to inspect the prints, "A single culprit? That suggests superspeed, but the arrangement of the footprints don't match that sort of movement."

"Yeah, but get this, they're not just on the ground," Cyborg pointed to the wall of the nearest building. Robin squinted and saw the vague outline of the same bootprint set into the sheer cement, pointing down.

"Strange," Robin's eyemask narrowed.

Three alarms went off, one from each of the present Titans' communicators. They each answered the call, finding Detective Slack's red-lit face staring out at them from inside the darkness of his helmet.

 _"We've got more already,"_ Slack growled, his face bordering on miserable. _"Two more calls at the Wayne Highrises, one at the Wolfman Estates, and one at the Glens."_

"That's not good," Cyborg frowned.

"And you can bet there will be more at both the Glens and the Wolfman Estates," Robin frowned. "What about the victims? Any pattern yet?"

 _"Just that they were either out of town or out for the evening,"_ Slack sighed, his face looking weathered. _"Our total now is seven robberies in less than forty-five minutes, totaling tens of millions stolen, and the frequency is increasing at a rapid pace. The topic is trending now, and HQ tells me that JNN is already calling them. This is starting to spiral out of control."_

"Don't worry, detective," Robin said. "They're fast, but like you said, the Titans are fast too. They might have a head start, but I promise you we'll catch whoever's behind this before they can skip town with their ill-gotten goods."

 _"Oh,"_ Slack gave a tired smile, _"I don't doubt that, Robin. I'm just dreading how much paperwork all this is going to cause."_

A grin cut across Robin's face, "Right. Keep at it, detective. We'll let you know as soon as we find anything."

Slack nodded and his image blipped off the communicator screen, replaced by a four-way between all five Titans. Robin wasted no time, "Raven, I want you to stay at the Wayne Highrises, keep looking for an egress. Cyborg will head to the Glens, I'll go to the Wolfman Estates. Starfire, I want you to go to the Premiani neighborhood. It matches the previous targets in terms of wealth. Let's see if we can't get ahead of whoever's doing this."

"What about me?" Beast Boy asked, peeking anxiously at Robin over his communicator.

"We need someone to follow our first lead," Robin said, giving his green friend a stoic expression.

"Figures," Beast Boy's ears drooped as he eyed the sewer drain.

"Alright Titans, let's do this!" Robin said as he dashed towards his bike once more and zoomed off into the city, Cyborg not even a second behind him in the T-Car. Beast Boy watched forlornly on his communicator screen as Starfire began blurring through the skies before her feed cut off as well. Raven stared at him, deadpan, from the circular screen. A highrise loomed in the background of her image.

"Heh. Don't suppose there's any chance you wanna trade?" Beast Boy asked, his ears perking up weakly as he forced a smile.

Raven smirked ever-so-slightly, "Good luck, Beast Boy."

The communicator screen went dark. Beast Boy dog-whined as his ears went limp. The green teen turned and drug his feet over to the sewer grate. Crouching down, Beast Boy gripped the grate and pulled it up out of the ground.

"Suuure," Beast Boy frowned as he tossed the grate aside, leaving it to clang to rest in the alleyway. "Send the guy with like a billion percent smelling power down into the sewer. Cuz that's not cruel and unusual!"

Beast Boy hopped down through the grate and landed on a dark, dank bit of concrete next to a murky river of storm water and brown muck. The rancid, almost metallic reek of it blasted him in the face.

"Hhuhhh," Beast Boy sighed. "I can't believe half the city still uses these old things! Haven't they ever heard of pipes? Man, whatever dessert Robin's buying later, he's totally getting me double."

Beast Boy looked up one end of the sewer and down the other, then shifted into a cat. His eyes widened and reflected brightly in the low-light, allowing him to see a traveled path down one end of the sewer tunnel. Meowing triumphantly, the green cat bounded swiftly down the path, its undulating sprint soon morphing into the laser-straight buzz of a green dragonfly. The insect diligently followed the sewer path, twisting and turning with the various offshoots and forks. After some time, the dragonfly noticed a glinting in the dimness. The insect settled on another dropped bit of jewelry, this time a diamond ring. Taking flight once more, the insect noticed other riches lying amongst the filth: an expensive sports coat, an exotic evening dress, an antique davenport, and a scattered trail of hundred dollar bills all marked the way forward. Beast Boy morphed into a green rabbit and silently scampered after the trail as it swerved away from the river of muck and down into an opening that lead to what Beast Boy recognized as a part of the city's old subway system. Beast Boy's large rabbit ears picked up the sound of voices and his eyes adjusted to a quickly brightening light as he came into the hoard proper. Darting between opulent bits of furniture, piles of rich clothing and accessories, and outright huge stacks of money, Beast Boy silently observed the culprit, his rabbit eyes narrowing in recognition.

"Put that portrait over by the gold bar pyramid, Billy!" "I was just thinkin' the same thing, Billy!" "You Billies are plum crazy! It looks WAY better next to the stuffed grizzly bear!" "Can somebilly give me a hand with this recliner? I wanna put it on top of the money pile!" "I gotchu, Billy!" "Why are you wearin' that weddin' dress Billy?" "Cuz it makes me feel pretty, Billy!" "Fair enough, Billy." "You Billies would not believe what they had in their fridge!" "That just looks like a sandwich, Billy." "A peanut butter and caviar sandwich, Billy!" "Hah! Nice one, Billy! Is it any good?" "Not a bit, Billy, but it's daggum fancy!" "Heads up, everybilly! We got some Billies comin' in with more stuff!"

Beast Boy morphed into a mouse and skittered underneath a set of high-end golf clubs, watching intently as the red-jump-suited clones all moved out of the way for the storm of humanity that raged into the abandoned station. The process was blindingly fast and incredibly precise, and Beast Boy only managed to follow it because of his previous familiarity with the duplicative powers of Billy Numerous. A wave of Billies came stretching into the station like a rail-gun, cloning themselves at high speed with their signature _bwoop_ noise sounding off rapid fire. A half-ton vault safe blurred on top of the Billy-wave, each clone touching it for the merest second to help group-pass it forward, and then un-cloning into the next nearest Billy the way that two mercury bubbles join together. The brief group-passings were enough to keep the safe moving forward at great momentum. As the Billy-wave came into the station proper, they cloned-up into a massive cluster ahead of the safe. The safe immediately crashed into the cluster with resounding force, but the mass of Billies acted as an impressively effective cushion. Each crushed Billy un-cloned into the next whole Billy, with new replacement Billies being cloned in the back of the cluster with nigh-mechanical efficiency until the safe had settled onto the station floor. At that point the crowd of Billies all melded back into a single Billy who clapped the dust off his hands in a satisfied fashion. The whole process had taken less than a second.

Beast Boy watched in awe as several more Billy-waves rushed in at blinding speed, carrying ever expanding wealth into the already overstuffed hoard. One after another the clone waves blurred and roiled, leaving only treasure in their wake. After the last bit of loot had been deposited, one last mass of Billies came teeming into the station, and Beast Boy's mousy eyes widened in realization. The final mass of Billies were cleaning at high speeds, cloning and un-cloning at the same rail-gun pace, and cleaning with the same machine-like group efficiency as the previous waves. As Beast Boy skittered his way back into the hidden depths of the stolen hoard, all the Billies gathered around their most recent spoils, hooping and hollering like kids at Christmas.

"Hooo doggies! Is that a Rembrandt?" "Shucks, Billy, like we'd know know a Rembrandt from a Rockwell!" "Shoot, I didn't even understand that reference, Billy!" "Alrighty! More money for the money pile!" "Billy you are obsessed with the money pile! You know we're gonna have to pack it all up nice to move it!" "Ooooh, somebilly's sour! Betchu ain't tooken the sled down the money pile!" "...We gotta sled?" "Hey now, is that double ply? We're sortin' poop-paper by lotions! And keep the bulbs separated by watts! Toss them sissy green bulbs out! We're a villain dagnabit, we don't care none 'bout no energy crisises!"

Beast Boy morphed back into his normal form once he felt sufficiently secluded within the deep-clutter of Billy's spoils. He flipped open his communicator only to find a blank screen with the words 'no signal' blinking indifferently at him. Beast Boy's eyes popped open at the sight. His ears fell backward and he shook the communicator as violently as he could inside the confines of his hiding space. When this accomplished nothing Beast Boy slapped the tiny machine against his free hand, but this too proved fruitless. Growling under his breath, Beast Boy adopted a new strategy. With a few clicks on the miniature keyboard the screen switched to a live-feed recorder. Beast Boy set the feed to broadcast to the other four Titans, but the connections all stalled and failed to complete. Shrugging to himself, Beast Boy wriggled his lithe green body up through the mass of Billy's opulent squalor and carefully perched his communicator on the shoulder an armless marble statue. That accomplished, Beast Boy shrank down in a diminished blur of green and disappeared beneath the wash of wealth.

A Billy cried the warning of more incoming Billies, and the jump-suited clone-rabble high-stepped out of the way. Red rubber waves rail-gunned into the abandoned station one after another, depositing even more loot with crash-cushioned precision. Bringing up the rear was a wave of cleaning Billies, making sure that nothing was left behind. But before the other Billies could swarm their latest goodies, the new Billies stopped them dead in their tracks.

"WHOA THERE, EVERYBILLY!" "WE GOTTA PROBLEM!" "Whatchu on about, Billies?" "It's the Titans! They're on our trail!" "What?" "How?" "But we got this figured like clockwork!" "We ain't sure, Billies, but the alien was there at the Premiani town!" "Billy's right! She caught onto us just as we was high-tailin' it outta the Maroni Mansion!" "We got away 'acourse, but we gotta call in the other Billies and get to gettin' 'fore the Titans make our heist!" "Well, you Billies heard Billy! Let's round it all up!" "Aw maaaan, and I just found the sled!"

The various bodies of Billy Numerous went to work. Each Billy cloned out into multiple branches towards specific piles of loot and began group-packing the treasure into more secure and condensed housing: crates, suitcases, and large boxes that the Billies produced from the corners of the abandoned station. Half a dozen Billies rolled up in as many straight-trucks, reverse-beeping in tandem with their mouths. As the packing-circus kicked into high-gear, one single Billy skidded to a stop at the edge of the station. That Billy peered through goggled eyes down the passageway into the old sewer and caught a glimpse of something shiny.

"HOLD IT!" Billy hollered, and the others all paused mid-action. Without even taking a step, the far Billy cloned-and-uncloned in rapid succession towards the shiny object. This covered a nearly thirty-yard gap in a fraction of a second with a series of machine-gun _bwoop_ s. A single Billy knelt and picked up a glinting, diamond encrusted wristwatch out of the dingy dust of the sewer space. Billy turned his head and noticed a trail of stolen goods leading back up the sewer. Billy frowned before exploding into a small Billy-wave and rushing up and down the sewer trail, then rolling back into the station and throwing the dropped goods on the floor. The Billy-wave coalesced back into a single body and cursed at the other Billies before him.

"JUST WHADDYA BILLIES THINK YER PLAYIN' AT? THERE WAS A WHOLE MESSA LOOT OUT THERE! DAGNABBIT, WHICHA YOU BILLIES DID THIS?"

"Uuhhh," one Billy stepped forward, wringing his hands nervously, "I think I came from some Billies that came that way, and yeah, I think summa them mighta forgot to do their cleanin', heh."

The Billies erupted into exclamatory fury:

"THIS IS THE ARTY BILLIES FAULT! I TOLD Y'ALL THAT FANCY LEARNIN' WEREN'T NO GOOD! TOO BUSY TALKIN' BOUT PAINTERS AND NOT FOCUSIN' ON THE JOB!" "YOU ARE OUTTA YER MIND, BILLY! THIS IS CLEARLY THE HUNGRY BILLIES DOIN'! RUMMAGIN' THROUGH THEM FRIDGES AND NOT PAYIN' NO MIND TO NOTHIN' ELSE!" "OH NUH UH, BILLY! I BLAME OUR OBSESSIVE SIDE! LOOK AT THEM BILLIES OVER THERE SORTIN' TOILET PAPER ALPHABETICALLY! THAT JUST AIN'T RIGHT IN THE MIND!" "OH COME ON NOW, BILLY! IF WE WANNA TALK ABOUT BEIN' CRAZY, WE GOTTA BLAME OUR CROSS-DRESSIN' IMPULSES!"

"HEY NOW!" a Billy in a wedding dress held up a defensive finger, "THAT IS UNCALLED FOR!"

"COME ON, EVERYBILLY!" a single Billy hollered above the ruckus, "WE AIN'T GOT TIME FOR THIS RIGHT NOW! WE GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE 'FORE THE TITANS SHOW UP!"

"Too late, yo!" a non-Billy voice echoed through the abandoned station, causing all the Billies to jump and look around for the source of the sound. Before they could hone in on their target, a green rhinoceros exploded out of one of their piles of treasure and stampeded over an unsuspecting row of Billies. The gored and trampled Billies neither broke nor bled under the animal's savage assault, but instead blurred and melded back into the nearest whole Billy as they were destroyed.

"IT'S THE SKINWALKER!" "SIC 'EM, BILLIES!"

Beast Boy spun green back into his normal form as a circle of ever expanding Billies rushed him from all sides. Beast Boy crouched down and grinned before leaping forward into the fray as a hulking silverback gorilla. The ape roared, fangs flashing, as it charged forward into the red mass, swatting and kicking and biting Billies with impulsive enthusiasm. For their part, the Billies tried to tackle and wrestle the green ape, but Beast Boy's vicious speed and ecstatic violence defied their attempts to do so, with a few Billies clinging helplessly to the gorilla's thick limbs as it blitzed through their ranks.

"DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!""DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!""DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!" "DOGPIIILE!"

The cry multiplied in an unnatural fashion as a tower of Billies cloned themselves upward some dozens of feet in an instant, stopping just short the station's ceiling before diving forward like a tidal wave on top of Beast Boy's rampaging form. The changeling noticed the cry as a great shadow covered him. Turning towards these sensations, Beast Boy's eyes bulged as the wall of flesh descended towards him with a collective, "YEEEEE-HAW!" At the last second, the great ape transformed into a tiny, jeweled humming bird and darted out of harm's way. As the tidal wave of Billies crashed into a large swathe of their standing cohort, the green humming bird bee-lined over above another group of Billies and unceremoniously morphed into a narwhal whale, rocking the station and flattening many Billies as he landed.

These twin collapses left a great amount of clones blurring back into a much smaller number of Billies. Beast Boy changed back into himself and posed smugly, pointing a finger at the remaining clones and making sure to face his recording communicator across the way.

"Give it up, Billy Numerous!" Beast Boy shouted. "You ain't no match for me, fool! My kung fu is straawwwwng!"

"Tch!" one Billy stepped forward as the others began duplicating behind him, more than replacing the lost clones. "In yer dreams! Billy Numerous ain't even begun to fight!"

Beast Boy leered defiantly as the clones continued their expansion and encircled him once again. He snubbed his nose and then held out a beckoning hand, saying, "Lez DANCE then, BABAAAY!"

The Billies let out a communal cry as they charged the green Titan. As they broke close proximity, some of them jumped and dove through the air at their prey, while others slid in to take out his ankles, and many came at mid-height with thrown fists and barging shoulders. Beast Boy did not even blink, and at the last second transformed, his huge new frame causing all the Billies to fly back with great force. The meaty swing of a gigantic green limb swept a swathe of Billies aside like a broom does dust, and a two-ton clawed step turned a Billy into blurring mush. The clone-charge ceased as they all stumbled and stepped back, gaping at their opponent as he reared back his reptilian head and let loose a primordial call.

 **"RRRAAAAAAAAUUUGH!"** the tyrannosaurus cry shook through the subway station and echoed out into the Jump City underground, causing pedestrians throughout the area to pause and stare at their nearby sewer-grates in curiosity. Before his opponent could gather his senses, Beast Boy charged forward. The Jurassic hero fought like a horror-story in motion; all swiping tail, crushing talons and the serrated guillotine of his dread bite ever-chomping. The Billies were unprepared for such an assault, and fell before the Titan much as worms fall prey to a hungry rooster. The villain was bowled back in a blurred tide of uncloning corpses and terrified southern accents.

With a great whooshing of emptied air, the Billies all compressed into a single body, which then caught itself and slid to a stop on the concrete floor. The tyrannosaurus licked its chops with an angled tongue and stared at the lone man with slitted eyes. Billy snorted and set his face into a determined frown. Still in a single body, Billy sprinted towards his monstrous opponent, letting loose a constant cry of "BILLAAAAAAAAAAY!" With a mighty lurch the villain leapt high into the air, and his cry changed as his voice _multiplied_ "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!" "NUMEROOUUUUUUUS!"

Beast Boy lunged forward, his terrible jaws gnashing, and hit the flying clone-swarm head-on. Scores of the gored and mauled blur-bled back into their brothers. Flailing bodies showered the ancient beast, many falling off its scaled form and crashing to the ground below, but more managing to grasp hold of the reptilian monster. Beast Boy flexed and thrashed and roared, snapping his jaws and stomping his feet and shaking his humongous body in an attempted to fight off the human-carrion that clung to his body. The Billies held fast and began attacking in a display of haphazard acrobatics. Billy-towers cloned upward to deliver constant far-falling body-blows to Beast Boy's back, neck, and head. Other Billies gripped onto giant joints and limbs, holding other Billies by the hands and helping them swing massive full-body kicks into the Titan's weakpoints. And all over in other spots Billies simply punched and kicked and tore and bit into the green hide of their target. The great beast gave a cry of pain and frustration before shrinking back down in a diminishing wash of green. The Billies hung in weightless freefall for a split moment before crashing to the ground in a mass collective, but this was not enough to give Beast Boy relief. Before he could morph into another animal, a fist caught him across the face. Then another found his gut. A kick took out his knee and he fell to the floor. The Billies closed in on their prey, raining down blows and strikes as the hero curled into the fetal position. A manic energy filled the Billies and the rate and savagery of their blows began to increase, but before they could work themselves up into a true bloodlust, they found themselves without a victim.

"WHAT'N TARNATION?" "WHERE IN SAM-HELL DID HE GO?" "IS HE A FLY? A MOUSE?" "EVERYBILLY LOOK AROUND! STAY ON YER TOES!"

The Billies spread out and searched for a matter of several seconds, but as they found nothing, one Billy brought them back to task.

"Alright, Billies! Stay on the look out for the shapeshifter, but we gotta get this swag outta here! Remember, his buddies are on to us too, and they could show up at any second! Let's get a move on!" "Billy's right, y'all! Everybilly lend a hand!" "Lez giter done, Billies!"

With that said, the Billies resumed their packing and in a few short minutes they had organized their entire night's haul and loaded it onto a nearby subway train. One Billy made his way to the head of the subway and, donning a conductor's hat, hollered, "AALLL ABOOOOOOARD!" The train buzzed to life, flickering as electricity passed through long dormant wires. The subway inched forward and quickly built speed until it had left the station entirely, zooming down magnetic rails to destinations unknown. As the subway left, the overhead lights in the station turned off with a loud _chung_. For several long, quiet minutes the station lay abandoned and nigh-spotless, with little to show that it had just been the scene of a clandestine treasure-hoard, let alone a dinosaur battle. However, the station did not remain empty for long. Over the course of a few minutes each of the four remaining Titans converged on this point one by one, with Robin bringing up the rear.

The Boy Wonder dashed into the station, cape flapping behind him and bo-staff at the ready, but as he saw his comrades through the darkness he cantered down to a stroll and returned his weapon to its place in his utility belt. Cyborg knelt down near the magnet tracks, his blue circuitry gleaming in the dim murk of the underground. His red eye smoldered as he scanned the area around him, a stern look on his face. Starfire floated higher up in the station, using a small starbolt to see by, searching for clues. Robin recognized a patch of shadow darker than the rest as Raven, levitating in the center of the room and meditating.

"Report," said Robin.

"They were here," Starfire said, concern budding in her voice.

"But not anymore," Cyborg grumbled as he stood from the tracks and turned to face Robin. Cyborg tossed something through the air. The item tumbled through the darkness as a flashing light and a buzzing noise. Robin caught the item deftly and found it to be Beast Boy's communicator, playing back the video of his battle with Billy Numerous. Robin's eyemask narrowed as the video showed Beast Boy's knee getting kicked out and a group of Billies clamoring over him.

"We are bad friends," Starfire wilted, touching down near Robin. "We allowed Beast Boy to fall alone against an enemy!"

"Beast Boy disappeared," Raven spoke from the deeper darkness. Her tone held a perfect balance. "He didn't get captured or broken. He's probably fine."

Cyborg frowned as he took a large step up out of the railway and onto the station platform. His voice brimmed with a just-contained intensity. "Beast Boy lost a fight, and now he's MIA without his communicator. That's not fine."

"True," Raven conceded, her tone still utterly even.

Robin pocketed Beast Boy's communicator and addressed the team, "We all know Beast Boy's come through on far worse situations than this. Still, we need to locate him. I'm betting that we will when we find Numerous."

"Agreed," Starfire's luminescent eyes nodded in the black. "He has likely transformed himself into a minuscule creature and done the stowing away on one of the Billy Numerous's persons."

"We're sure he's not somewhere in this room," Cyborg asked, looking at Raven. "Hurt and tiny and hidden and waiting for us to help him?"

"I'd sense him," Raven said with calm certainty. "He's not here."

"Alright then," Cyborg nodded with finality. "You don't see it in the video, but Numerous used the old subway system to escape. The tracks are still radiating low levels of heat and free ions. We could try to chase him down, but I say we get the drop on him at his destination."

"Good idea," Robin nodded. "I take it you know where he's going to be?"

"I do," Cyborg pressed a button on his forearm display and a holographic projection of Jump City lit up the darkness. "The magnetic rails are siphoning energy out of the city's powergrid in order to function. Looks like Billy's been learning new tricks again. Fortunately for us, each section of the rail is being powered by a different local substation. Therefore, we can track him by following the series of power surges. Considering the path he's been taking so far, there's only one place he's headed."

"The docks," Robin frowned, following the holographic illustration. "He's going to try and make a seaward escape."

"Good," Raven said, a slight inflection entering her voice, "He'll be a sitting duck in the bay."

"Indeed," Starfire nodded, her own voice hardening.

"At this time of the evening there's a lot of loose traffic in the harbor," Robin frowned. "And we don't know where he's going to try and move his goods to. Could be well out of the city, could be just up the coast, or it _is_ possible he could be trying to store it at the docks. Maybe even in one of the warehouses. We'll have to pick him out as fast as possible, which means we need to get there as fast as possible."

"Then hold on," said Raven. The deeper darkness sheened blacker still and spiraled outward like a blooming flower, encompassing the other Titans. An otherworldly screeching filled the underground as Raven's soul-self soared up through the soil and sediment to launch out of the ground-level pavement. Blackshine wings sailed upwards past the neon-concrete of the tech sector and into the open sky, then swooped low over the building tops of the city, flying like the wind towards the churning waters of the bay. As the unglowing bird skimmed the skyline the city's people looked up, pointing and shouting as the familiar phenomenon passed by in a blink. The update beat through Jump City like a pulse; the Titans were still out, still on the move, still on the hunt. Speculation raged through messengers and threaded conversations. Children argued and donned costumes, acting out what they imagined the adventure to be. Teenagers and young adults took the opportunity to post about and cheer on their favorite Titan, and in some cases, their favorite villain, hoping that their bad boy/girl of choice was out causing havoc. The middle-aged and older, along with the more serious minded youth, brooded over the potential collateral damage and the never ending state of superpowered warfare that raged continuously through their city and so many others. And, on seedier parts of the internet, people placed bets in untraceable currencies, hoping to win big on guessing the nature and outcome of the Titans' latest mission.

And as all this began in the span of a few moments, the blackshine bird broke over the bay and circled above the docks, letting out a haunting screech that no one on the water could miss. On the far end of the harbor, a freighter sat anchored alone. A team of red-jumpsuited men worked on its deck, moving about in a frenzy. The boat bobbed in the water and sent out a rocking wake. A wave of bodies rail-gunned out of a nearby tunnel access and moved several crates into the freighter's hull, increasing the bobbing wake substantially. Raven's soul-self spied the unnatural activity from on high, and she plummeted out of the sky. The wave of dark energy dive-bombed the freighter directly, setting its bobbing to an even greater intensity and sending Billies reeling about on deck, but not actually damaging the ship itself in any way.

"IT'S THE DEMON!" "SHE'S HIT US!" "MAY DAY! MAY DAY! DROP THE LIFE BOATS! BILLIES AND BILLIES FIRST!" "DON'T BE THICK, BILLY! SHE DIDN'T HURT US! SHE BEAMED IN! SHE'S IN THE SHIP!" "WELL WHADDA WE DO THEN, BILLY?"

Before anybilly could answer, a portion of the deck exploded upwards as Cyborg leapt through it bodily, loosing a battlecry that echoed far over the waves of the bay. Cyborg bounded forward onto the deck, taking out groups of nearby Billies with devastating sweep-punches. He quickly eliminated all the hostiles in armsreach, and so then switched to his cannonarm. Cyborg took quick aim and let fly a series of brief sonic blasts, firing them one after another at random clusters of Billy and blasting them to blurred shreds.

The Billies on deck began to duplicate and charge at Cyborg, but before they could get far Starfire shot out through the side of the freighter in a squealing of wrenching metal. Starfire looped once through the air and then strafed the deck from the side, flanking the charging Billies with a volley of high-powered starbolts that tore through them effortlessly before skimming out over the bay and kicking up huge fin-waves of green-lit water. More Billies cloned upward from below deck and charged Cyborg from behind while others clone-towered up several stories in the air so as to dive-bomb at Starfire. Cyborg transformed his second hand into a sonic cannon as well and began firing in a full 360 degree range. Starfire pulled away from the deck and began dodging and blasting the waves of falling Billies, which then splashed into the water of the bay and began immediately cloning upward at her again. From a distance it looked like great red tentacles were reaching upward out of the bay to swat at Starfire's zigzagging form.

Raven phased through the deck and joined the battle as well. With a two handed gesture and a whispered mantra, Raven rose through the air and swung her hands wide. A scythe-blade of blackshine stretched out some fifteen yards and sliced through dozens of clones like a knife through warm butter. The Billies began multiplying at double speed, and many now turned to charge at Raven, who swung and slashed relentlessly with her magic.

An explosion blasted flame out of a nearby stairwell, and Robin tumbled out of it trailing smoke. Robin flipped through the air and extended his bo-staff. He landed amidst the crowd of Billies and wasted no time in pummeling them with expert blows to their vital areas. The small group of Billies near him turned and focused on the Boy Wonder, attempting to crowd him as they had done with Beast Boy, but Robin twirled his staff in a lethal fan and jump-flipped through the air, evading as much as he attacked. In the middle of his flip Robin caught a split-second glance at the other Titans, and this was all he needed to process their respective situations. As he landed and swung out his staff in a devastating wide arc, Robin also let fly a series of special discs. One landed near Cyborg and unleashed a thick cloud of smoke, blinding and choking the Billies but allowing Cyborg to still see with his cybernetic eye. One landed near Raven and flash-exploded, producing a thick crop of incendiary flames and causing several Billies to jump back in surprise. Raven stretched out her hands and fed her mystic powers into the dancing fire, and as she did so the flames burned black. Raven rose into the air and twirled about, the black fire spiraling about her and taking the shape of a roaring, serpentine dragon. All Billies touched by the ebonfire erupted into burning darkness and ran screaming off the deck and into the waters of the bay, but found no relief as they burnt underwater for several seconds before finally blurring off back into the clone-hive. A third and final disc found its way into the waters of the bay, and there blew open in a hissing of mist that spread out over the waters in an instant, leaving nothing but solid ice behind. The Billy-tentacles froze, covered in icicles and sudden snow. Starfire flew up and away, building green energy in both hands for several seconds. With a frenzied cry Starfire shot a great beam of power down into the frozen section of the bay. The Billies shattered in frozen splinter, glowing emerald in the wake of their collective demise.

The Titans moved as one, closing in on an increasingly corralled Billy Numerous. The multiplicative teen teemed and roiled with swelling numbers, but the Titans cut into his ranks faster than he could selfproduce. Raven's black flames coiled around an ever-shrinking perimeter, instantly immolating any Billy fool enough to touch it. Starfire fired off a continuous stream of searing starbolts at a downward angle, keeping the Billies from towering up into the air. Cyborg let off twin cannonbeams into the centermass of the writhing and wriggling cloneform, culling their numbers. Robin aided Cyborg, unleashing a barrage of explosive discs into the bulwark of Billies. The Titans' assault pressed inward. The space allowed the Billies grew tighter and tighter. The mound of clones flexed and shuddered more and more violently in mass-meiosis. Their consistent _bwoop_ s and southern twangs blended together and became one sound: the warbling shriek of monster made of men.

The Titans closed in evermore, but soon they had pressed their advantage too far. The warbling shriek reached a fevered note, and the mass of Billies overflowed. Many burnt to cinders against Raven's black hellfire, many more exploded against the ministrations of Starfire, Cyborg, and Robin, but the quasi-hivemind had reached the mindset a cornered animal, and the anguish of some meant little to the panicked whole. The Titans tried to hold the line, but the wall of Billies swallowed them all at once. Robin, Cyborg and Raven were knocked off their feet. Each became lost in a sea of bodies. None of them could tell which way was up, because every direction was nothing but Billy. Punches, kicks, elbows, teeth. The three Titans could do nothing but struggle. Starfire gasped at the sight, grasping her face with worry. Her next heartbeat melted her concern, and replaced it with righteous fury. Starfire's face fell into a warrior's scowl and she dove into the seething culture of Billy Numerous, scorching through its innards like a fiery bullet, searching and searching for her friends. Cyborg fired his cannons. Raven encircled herself in blackshine. Robin tuck and covered inside his cape. The freighter rocked with the weight and movement of the human swarm, sending heavy wake out into the harbor. The voices of the Billies took on a menacing tone, the sound of exaltation and sadistic power. But just as the Billies start to revel in their superiority, another inflection entered their hive-sound. A dry heave here. A wet cough there. Cries of sadism morphed into low-pitched whines and pained groans. Punches and kicks stopped flying at the captured Titans as everybilly abruptly lost their strength and cringed into one another, grasping at their stomachs.

"OOooh! I ain't feelin' too hot, Billy!" "Me neither, Billy!" "Oh no! My tum-tum!" "What'd we have for supper, Billy?" "I think I remember a caviar sandwich, Billy!" "Are we allergic to fish eggs?"

As the Billies commiserated they began to retract, bleeding back into one another in a receding tide of nauseated blithering until only a single Billy remained.

"Oooh boy," Billy said, stumbling over to the the railing and leaning over the side. "Oooh man! I'm gunna! I'm gunna! Hup-" Billy pursed his lips and closed his mouth tight. The Titans collected themselves and watched in baffled awe. Billy breathed steadily through his nose for a few seconds before exhaling with relief. Still clutching to the railing, Billy spat down once into the bay.

"Awwwhohoo man," Billy sighed, "I really thought I was gonna toss my cookies there."

A green blur rushed out from Billy's pale face and perched itself on the railing.

"Lemme held you with that," Beast Boy smirked and slapped Billy hard on the back.

"BWWWAAAAAAAAUUUGGGHHH!" Billy wretched bodily over the rails.

"BEASTIE! MY DUUUUDE!" Cyborg's face broke into a huge smile and he held up a hand.

"AY AY AY!" Beast Boy called as he hopped off the railing and landed a resounding high-five on Cyborg's metal palm.

"Ooooh! I am elated to see you again, Beast Boy!" Starfire cooed as she darted in and wrapped her green companion in a vice-like hug.

"Soooo," Raven droned, eyeing the still vomiting villain. "You transformed into a stomach virus?"

"Yooou KNOW it, mama!" Beast Boy crooned as he returned Starfire's hug.

"Disgusting," Raven droned, frowning at the changeling.

"Disgusting, yet effective," Robin grinned as he sauntered over to the railing and slapped a pair of cuffs on Billy Numerous.

"Effective," Cyborg nodded and then poked Billy's side, causing the captive to wretch explosively over the side of the freighter once again. Cyborg grinned, "And HILARIOUS! HAHAHAHAAAA!"

"It was the genius!" Starfire beamed, releasing Beast Boy and floating merrily through the air.

"Well, you know, I don't like to brag or nothin'-" Beast Boy started, dusting off his shoulders.

"Uh-huh," Raven droned. Beast Boy ignored her and continued.

"-but I just HAD to put a big end on ol' Billy Numerous here! Y'all shoulda seen the whoopin' I put on him down in the underground! Boy was hurtin' bad!"

"Actually, we did," Robin smiled, pulled Beast Boy's communicator out of his belt, and tossed it to him.

"My favorite part was when Billy gang-stomped you," Raven droned, smiling slightly. "You were very impressive as his kicking bag."

"Whoa, hey now, mama," Beast Boy held up a defensive finger as he pocketed his communicator. "I sense your smarcasms, okay? And I will have you know that was a tactical gang-stomping on my part!"

Raven blinked and stared at Beast Boy . Billy wretched loudly once again. Robin exhaled breathily and held out a clarifying hand towards Beast Boy, asking, "A _tactical_ gang-stomping?"

"A tactical gang-stomping!" Beast Boy grinned and nodded insistently.

"Hmmm, yes, of course," Cyborg stroked his chin and put on a high-class accent. Cyborg made a scholarly flourish of his hand as he said, "The tactical gang-stomping. A classic maneuver."

"Teehee! Heehee!" Starfire's giggling caused her to bounce slightly in the air.

Robin shook his head and chuckled under his breath. Raven turned to look at him. Robin could only shrug at her and sheepishly say, "Tactical gang-stomping."

"Whatever," Raven rolled her eyes, smiling slightly wider, and waved her hand at the nauseated Billy Numerous. A sphere of blackshine enclosed the villain with a ghostly ringing and levitated him off the freighter's deck.

"Good work, Titans," Robin said as an armada of armored police cruisers began flooding into the docks, their sirens wailing and lights flashing brightly. "I'm sure Detective Slack will be relieved to know we've captured the culprit and recovered the stolen goods. You all worked hard tonight. Head on back to the Tower, I'll take care of our police report and meet you back there."

"Uh-uh!" Beast Boy stepped forward, waving his hand in front of him.

"What's wrong?" Robin asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Before all this mess, we was eating dinner," Beast Boy pointed a finger in Robin's red breast. "And then we got interrupted! But before all that, YOU promised to buy us dessert!"

"Hey, YEAH!" Cyborg smiled viciously threw his arms wide.

"That is correct," Starfire nodded imperiously. With a mischievous expression she too pointed at the Boy Wonder, saying, "You promised to buy us the dessert, Robin!"

"They're not wrong," Raven shrugged.

"So that police report you're so excited for is gonna have to wait, dawg," Beast Boy grinned. "Now, I had to travel through the old sewers AND crawl around this dude's intenstrinal track today, so whatever you gettin' us, you are gettin' me TRIPLE servings! No questions! No complaints!"

"Okay! Okay!" Robin laughed and threw up palms up. "You got me! I guess Slack can wait until morning for our report."

"Good!" Beast Boy nodded. "Now, what's it gonna be?"

"Well," Robin started, "I was thinking of that new sorbet place-"

"BWWWWAAAAAAAAUUUUGGGHHH!" Billy Numerous threw up violently inside his blackshine orb.

"Yyyyyeaaaah," Cyborg winced and jerked his head towards their prisoner, "What he said."

"Definitely," Beast Boy agreed. "I appreciate the healthy diet, bruh, but it's dessert not post-workout. I'm wantin' something that tastes goooood!"

"Alright," Robin held up a palm again. An amused expression moved over Robin's features. "No sorbet, so how about... tsss, oh, I dunno. Does _pie_ sound good?"

 _"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH!"_ Cyborg bellowed out a cry of pleasure so loud that the approaching JCPD officers stopped dead in their tracks, looking around for incoming combatants. Cyborg fell to his knees and threw his hands up in praise as he held his note of rapture.

"DUDE!" Beast Boy physically leapt onto Robin, his face glowing with excitement, "YOU DANG WELL _KNOW_ PIE SOUNDS GOOD!"

"Hehehehahahaha!" Starfire laughed brightly as Cyborg's bellow continued, unfaltering and undiminished.

"Hooraaaay," Raven droned, her voice filled with even less enthusiasm than usual.

And so the course of events went as one would have expected. The Titans handed off Billy Numerous and made off for their favorite pie shop, much to the delight of the shop's owner and the exhaustion of the shop's employees. Cyborg challenged Beast Boy on exactly what constituted 'triple servings,' and Robin's wallet paid the price.

As the Titans celebrated, Billy was hauled off to the JCPD station and placed in special, duplication inhibiting restraints while the officers filed the necessary paperwork to have him transferred to the Rig. The restraints were nothing more than a thin metal collar and matching metal cuffs, each set with a single, glowing red light that indicated the power suppression had been activated. Billy fumbled with the cuffs and collar the entire ride out to the Rig, trying to make them comfortable. The sun had already set by the time Billy strolled out of the JCPD hovercraft and onto the Rig's entry yard. The yard stood empty at that time of night, but as the officers escorted Billy inside and placed him before a large, polygonal front desk, Billy heard voices. He looked in the direction of the voices and smiled to himself as the reception officer approved the paperwork. The officers then took Billy by his arms and walked him down a long hall. The hallway was blank white, completely sparse, and set in an odd trapezoidal shape. As they walked down the hallway, the voices grew closer. Before long the white hallway became a transparent glass walkway. As Billy looked down beneath him, he found the Rig's dining hall. A cavalcade of exotic supervillains sat around tables, talking and eating. Billy's grin reached his ears.

"HOWDY Y'ALL!" Billy cried at the top of his lungs. "HOW'S EVERYBILLY, DOIN'?"

The villains looked up. Their voices cried out in recognition as they hailed at their newest jail-mate.

"HEY! BILLAAAY!" cried out one of Billy's old H.I.V.E. classmates that he couldn't quite place.

"LOOK! THEY GOT ANOTHER ONE!" yelled a burly man with moving tattoos.

"How many Billies does that make now?" asked a man with a spider for a head.

"At least four since I've been here." answered a balding old man.

"I just wonder what they do with them." said a scrawny teenager with a bowl cut.

"CHIN UP, BILLY-BOY! WE'LL SEE YOU WUNNA THESE DAYS!" shouted out another of Billy's old classmates. Billy could not recall this one's name either.

As the officers escorted Billy passed the walkway and into another stretch of white, trapezoidal corridor, Billy's smile faded. As they began to march passed flat, steel doors set into the slopping sides of the hallway, Billy's frown deepened.

"Another one, huh?" Billy asked, looking up at one of his escorts, then the other. "There's more Billies in here?"

"Hahaha, ooooh yeah," one of the officers said, his sanguine voice buzzing darkly through his helmet.

The other officer looked pointedly to the side.

"I always love it how you can't even keep track of yourself," the sanguine officer continued. "It's the funniest thing! You just spread out across the city like a virus! No consciousness. No plan. Just drifting aimless. Then you're so involved doing who-knows-what that you almost never even notice when another group of you faces the Titans! It's like you never even turn on the TV! Like, what? You spend all your time deciding which version of you is gonna be the pivot man? Hahaha!"

"Well," Billy started, frowning at the laughing officer. His brow furrowed, and he looked around. Blinking, he only found the two officers beside him as they marched down the long hallway. The lights on his restraints glowed steady red. Billy blinked and shook his head, then looked back at the still laughing officer and continued, "Look here! Billy Numerous is a party, alright? When Billies get together that's... well, I mean, that's all that goes down, right? I mean, Billies hang, Billy! Right? Right?"

Billy asked the last two questions at one officer, then the other. When one didn't answer and the other just kept laughing, Billy's expression grew angry. "Right, Billies?!" He asked, looking back and forth between the two.

"Hahahahaaa!" The laughing officer's chest heaved through his space age armor.

"Billy," the other officer look directly at the confused teenager. His voice was even and direct, but not hard. "You, or rather several other versions of you, have all independently been diagnosed with a combination of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and a Non-Classical Schizoid Personality Disorder. Both of these have been greatly exacerbated and altered by the nature of your metahuman powers."

"Pssssh," Billy scoffed at the officer. "What? What's that even mean, Billy? We ain't crazy."

"I'm not you, Billy. We are not you," the calmer officer explained, his voice dropping with concern. The sanguine officer shook his head and sniggered.

"Tch, well, yeah," Billy shook his head again, blinking and looking around anxiously. "Everybilly knows that! _We're_ Billy. I mean I'm Billy, not you!"

"That's right, Billy," the officer nodded. "You are you. Whenever we capture another version of you we follow a procedure. You're not allowed out among the general population of the prison, but it's not solitary confinement. You're visited every day by a number of mental health professionals. It's part of a program to help you get better, Billy."

Billy did not say anything, but scowled at the officer with slowly widening eyes.

"The doctors say that your powers have not only complicated your disorders, but that they are likely the root of them," the officer continued, his voice getting softer even as they continued to march. "This knowledge has informed your treatment. Because of this, there's only ever one version Billy Numerous kept in this facility."

"What," Billy asked as the officers finally stopped in front of a metal door that looked identical to all the others they had passed. "Only one? What, you gonna kill me, or somethin', and keep the other Billy thatchu been shrink wrappin'?"

"No-" the calm officer started, but the sanguine officer cut him off.

"We're not gonna do anything to you, Billy." the sanguine officer almost skipped up to the door's control panel. "As for what _he's_ gonna do to you? Well, there's some debate here about whether or not it actually counts as murder. Personally? I don't care what you call it. I just think it's damn entertaining!"

"You're a sick man, Walker," the other officer sighed.

"He?" Billy asked, his expression dazed.

The metal door slid open with a mechanical _hiss_.

The interior of the cell was as stark white as the hall, but was not as sparse. A large, cheap rug lay across the floor. Several paintings and drawings of dubious quality hung neatly about the walls. A couple shelves full of little knick-knacks had been bolted into a space above a house plant that was not quite dying. A small, plain bed lay against the far wall, and in the corner next to it was a small television and a nondescript chair. From the doorway, Billy could see that a children's cartoon played on the television, but the back of the chair faced the doorway. As Billy looked warily around for something more, a familiar voice filled the room as someone stood from the chair.

"Well, well. Look what the cat dragged in," said another Billy as he rounded the chair and face the doorway. This Billy, too, wore his prisoners uniform, including cuffs and collar with the red glowing lights.

"Billy!" said the new Billy with blatant relief. He scampered into the room, casting distrustful glances back at the guards in the hallway. The Billy of the cell considered his counterpart with a small, amused smile.

The new Billy went on, "Oh man, I'm glad to see you, Billy! These two was givin' me some sorta run around! I thought they was gonna curb stomp me and put me in the chili or somethin', but now that we're back together we can bust outta here!"

"You reckon so?" asked the cell Billy, lazily jangling one of his special cuffs.

The new Billy looked down at his own cuffs and frowned, then looked back up at his double with an earnest expression, "We can't double up, but there's still two of us! Quick, 'fore they close the door! Let's charge 'em! They might have the keys to these darn things they got on us!"

Out in the hallway, Walker laughed. The cell Billy shook his head, smiling pleasantly.

"They don't have any key. And even if they did, you couldn't get it off 'em. Turns out, if I can't gang up on somebody, I ain't much of a fighter. See, I already done tried what you just suggested, oh, 'bout six times in the past couple years."

The frightened clone blinked hard, "Couple YEARS?"

"That's what I said," Billy nodded calmly.

The clone looked around the room, growing frantic, "But, but, we're Billies! Billies gotta try! Billies stick together! 'Swhat Billies do, dagnabit!"

"Well, I gotta disagree with you there, boy. You see, I'm Billy Numerous. You? Well, you're just a memory I ain't got around to recollectin' yet."

The clone's mouth moved for a few seconds, trying and failing to form words. It backed up against a wall, staring at Billy with a mystified expression. Billy smirked up to a camera in a ceiling corner, then looked over at the guards and simply nodded. The doors _hissed_ shut. The clone found its voice again, and stuttered, "Wh-what was that about, Billy? What are you on about? What are you sayin'?"

"Hhuhh," Billy sighed, smiling indulgently. "That was me lettin' them know that you're ready. Won't fight it too much. What I'm sayin'?" Billy stepped up to the clone and ran a hand down its cheek. Billy sucked air through his teeth and said, "Boy, you got pretty skin. Think I'll take it."

"No," the clone said weakly, shaking its head.

The red lights on their restraints went dark.

"NO!" the clone yelped, jumping to get away.

"YEE-HAW!" Billy cried, a cruel edge to his voice as he tripped the clone, spending it sprawling hard to the cell floor. Billy immediately dropped on top of the clone, holding it down as it kicked and struggled.

"GET OFFA ME!" the clone cried as it turned on to its back and tried to push Billy off of it. Billy's hands dug into its body, starting to blur into it like two mercury bubbles merging, before the clone managed to push the hands back out again.

"RIIIIIDE 'EM COWBOOOOY!" Billy hollered, laughing freely as he pressed his hands back into the clone's chest, causing it to blur and bend with weird physics. The clone struggled and fought ecstatically beneath him, but as the blurring increased, its energy started to fade.

"NO! PLEASE! NOOOO!" the clone wailed, tears starting to fall down its cheeks. Its whole body rippled in one last wave of weird physics as the edges of its form started to go fuzzy. Its voice came out oddly static as it said one final, "Please."

"Noooo!" Billy mocked, eyes and voice full of energy, as the clone's will finally became one with his own.

 _bwoop_

The clone popped back into Billy's body with all the ceremony of a bubble popping. For a moment, Billy stayed on his hands and knees, panting excitedly on the floor. The red lights on his cuffs and collar turned back on. The camera in the ceiling corner refocused. Across the cell, Billy's small television blared out an electronic jingle; the theme song for a new episode of Billy's cartoon.

Billy took a great big sniff, stood up from the floor, and dusted himself off with a satisfied look on his face. He walked over to his chair and took a seat. Billy picked up a small glass of water from an armrest cupholder. He sipped on it as he relaxed into the cheap cushions of his lounger. Billy considered the television with a pleased expression as the theme song finished and the show itself began.

"I love this episode," Billy said to himself.

* * *

 _H here, saying thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you'll join me next week for CHAPTER 5: THE PHANTOMS OF JUMP FLATS!_

 _The struggles of superheros and supervillains don't fit neatly into the context of normal justice. What does this mean for the Titans? What does this mean for their foes?_


	5. THE PHANTOMS OF JUMP FLATS

**TITANS FOREVER**

 **CHAPTER FIVE:** _THE PHANTOMS OF JUMP FLATS_

High noon beat down on the desert southeast of Jump City. Twin stretches of black highway cooked underneath the merciless sun. Heat waves shimmered above the ground, distorting the vision of a vast expanse of rocky flatness that stretched west out to a wall of sheer bluffs and as far east and south as the eye could see. In the fluctuating image of the boiling air, cacti appeared as twisting flames of lime fire and rock formations bent and rolled like giants dancing to an unheard music which held no rhythm or meter. To the north of the flats stood a wide mesa, jutting up out of the ground like an earthen tower. Jump City sprawled atop this mesa as a glowing crown, gleaming brightly in the sunlight. This mesa, along with the western bluffs, formed part of a much larger geographical formation that separated the rest of the sunken desert from the lush beauty of the coast. While Jump City enjoyed life wafted by a cool ocean breeze, the flats beneath it baked like a dry bone well under sea level.

Through this shimmering, scorching wasteland, a single car moved up one half of the black highway, headed towards the halo-esque sheen of Jump City. The vehicle sputtered and strained with the effort of moving through such oppressive temperatures, but it made good time nonetheless, buzzing through the barren hell at an unmistakably eager clip. As the car zipped towards its destination, a small lizard watched it from a distance with a rotating eye. The horny lizard stood on a small, flat rock amidst a pool of shallow sand. The stone held enough heat to cook an egg in seconds, but the lizard's natural defenses prevailed even as its green scales shone like emerald sparks through the violent heat waves. Buzzards circled far overhead, and their distant cries joined the car's spluttering effort as the only sound to break through the buzzing drone of _hot_.

The vehicle's occupants had eyes only for Jump City, but the lizard split his dual sight between the car and the surreal dancing of the desert. The lizard abruptly shifted its feet in excitement and half of its eyes focused on a spot in the desert. Through the haze of beige mirage, several points of royal blue fluttered into existence, accented by the rich wash of southwestern sky. The blue points beamed directly towards the car at high speeds, making the car's own laborious efforts seem slow by comparison. As the points drew closer to the vehicle, their forms solidified into recognizable shapes. Six polygonal humanoids, all the same flat royal blue, hovered inches off the ground and raced through the air without moving, their stances each locked in an identical position reminiscent of speed skaters. Across the way, the lizard morphed into a green falcon and took to the skies.

The polygonal skaters silently mounted the highway with a light spray of pale sand, and hovered speedily down the black pavement in a mathematically perfect single file. It took only seconds for these living programs to reach the spittering, sprottling car, and it was then that the car's occupants noticed something wrong. As the blue skaters slowed to match the vehicle's speed and kept their single file, the car itself tried its futile best to speed up. The skaters kept pace without ever lagging even a millimeter behind. The car swerved back and forth along the highway, but the polygonal pursuers effortlessly mimicked the movement one by one in a gracefully accurate wave.

Abandoning its pathetic attempts at evasion, the vehicle merely speed towards the hopelessly distant Jump City as absolutely fast as its four cylinder engine would take it. Sensing their prey's desperation, the polygonal skaters moved from their singe file. One by one they accelerated around the car and encircled it with synced perfection, still locked in identical unmoving poses. All at once the skaters turned, 'facing' the car at their center while still matching its velocity. Their blank, blue faces were noting more than a simplistic diamond shape, but this changed in a flash. From the centerpoint of the diamond, a blindling white coloration spread out over the blue of their faces, forming a stylistically sinister approximation of an evil smile. At last the humanoid programs broke their stances, and moving in tandem they each raised a single arm up, aiming their sharply pointed fists down at the body of the car, but before the algebraic assailants could pierce the vehicle's hide, a giant green yak flew sideways across the highway, crashing into the front skater with an unceremonious:

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" **-CRINCH!-**

The airborne yak slammed the skater off the highway with a sound like glass cracking. The other polygondroids rotated 180 in a defensive search, still keeping pace with the car, but their search was too late to be effective. A stream of visible, blue-white noise knocked back two attackers on one side of the car while twin starbolts pelted two on the other side. A large blackshining rock slammed on top of the rear attacker, pinning it to the pavement with an earsplitting screech. The four side attackers bounced sharply along the highway with an unnaturally pointed tinkling noise sounding off every time they contacted the pavement. The car, now mercifully free, speed off into the distance towards Jump City as Cyborg, Beast Boy, Starfire and Raven all assembled on the blistering hot pavement.

"BOO-YAH!" Cyborg bellowed as he hefted his cannonarm and skidded to a stop on the blistering road. He nodded his head and took a slide step, dancing in place as he continued, "Uh-huuuh! I said -B- to the Double-O -Y-A-H-! I said BOO-YAAAH!"

A huge, forest-green tiger leapt onto the road beside the cybernetic hero and roared his approval, his fur sticking up in excited fury. Starfire swooped down out of the sky with a battlecry and did a light trailing loop around her friends before floating above them with a battle-pose and a ringing warble of alien energy.

Raven quietly floated up beside them.

Down the road, the polygondroids rallied back from the ambush. The one Raven had smashed simply lifted the now normal rock off its body and set it aside without care, letting it **CRUNCH** into the road and crush the pavement. The polygondroids formed a line facing the Titans. Their glowing white expressions transformed into stylized scowls and, in sync, they took hovering stances that looked halfway between a karate form and a ballerina pose.

"Four on six," Cyborg noted with a sanguine smile.

"The bad odds," Starfire's eyes burned cosmic green.

"For them," Raven almost-grinned.

"ROOOOARHHH!" Beast Boy clawed the air and flopped his tiger-tail back and forth.

The hovering enemies vibrated together, filling the air with an unnatural, high-pitched rattling, before zooming towards the Titans at high speeds.

"TITANS, GO!" Cyborg shouted, firing off a sweeping beam from his cannonarm as the other Titans sprung into action. The polygondroids broke formation, all floating high away from Cyborg's attack, but in the process they put themselves in position for the other Titans. Beast Boy morph-zipped forward with a half-existing whalesong before divebombing two opponents as a spike-shelled, club-tailed ankylosaurus, body-slamming them into the ground with the same glass-shatter-screech as before. Raven produced a blackshine talon from each hand and sent them forth on jagged streams of mystic darkness. She scooped a polygondroid with each talon and slammed them together, producing a noise like knives on a chalkboard. Raven then whipped her blackshine tether around and over her head, bringing her captive opponents along for the ride, before she threw them down hard into the ground below. Starfire's tactic had a bit more aerobatic grace. As she shot between her two targets, they each rotated to follow her, but the alien warrior banked at a hard upward angle until she had lined up both her opponents, and then nailed the two of them with a single powerful stream of starbolt, hammering them into the desert floor.

"TOO EASY, BABY!" Cyborg cried out as he launched a voluminous volley of micro-missiles from rapid-blinking silos in his chest and torso. As the other three Titans pulled away, the missiles landed in three clusters, each focusing on a different group of polygondroids, and exploded in a deafening trio of thunderfire.

The four Titans immediately formed a perimeter around the shortlived fireballs, and each Titan looked on with veteran focus as the light of the explosions melted into large clouds of thick, acrid smoke. For a few seconds the Titans saw nothing, but all at once the royal blue of their enemies floated through the billowing ash. The Titans all flexed in preparation for another bout of combat, but they need not have worried. The smooth, geometric planes of the polygondroid's bodies had become spider-webbed with countless cracks that leaked a blinding white light. As the calculated lifeforms floated aimlessly from the smoke, they twitched and glitched about their cracked bodies, letting out a deep static sound as they did so. With an abrupt and resoundingly deep **BWERMP** the polygondroids each shattered into countless shards of royal blue that all tinkled with impossible sharpness as they littered the ground, and then burned out of existence in a split second of blinding-white fire.

Cyborg raised his human brow at the places where the polygondroids had shatter-flared into nothing.

"Soooo," Cyborg started, not unmorphing his cannonarm. "Did that actually, honestly seem a little too easy to anyone else?"

"Umm," Beast Boy's ears drooped as he bounded over, his expression unsure. He shrugged up at Cyborg and said, "If I say no, will that invite good things or bad things?"

"It was too easy," Raven droned as she and Starfire floated over to the boys.

"Indeed," Starfire nodded, glancing about warily.

"Yeah," Cyborg murmured, hefting his cannonarm. "Thought so."

Unseen by the Titans, the transparent outline of a man moved on the edge of the battleground, perfectly masked by the vigorous distortion of the heatwaves. This transparent man raised one arm to the sky, and a circle on his palm glowed in a storm of pale technicolor.

"Oh, come on," Beast Boy waved at the air. "We're the Titans! We're the best in the west, yo! Maybe this wasn't actually that easy, but these days we're just that good!"

"Hmm," Cyborg considered as he looked around and saw nothing but the vast expanse of desert. He shifted his arm back to normal and smiled at his green friend. "Yeah, maybe!"

"Doubt it," Raven droned.

"Look!" Starfire pointed up into the sky.

The circling buzzards scattered on high as a V-formation of more than twenty pale-pink figures dove out of the sky. Though polygonal as the skaters had been, these forms were not humanoid, but instead took a shape akin to a rather angular horseshoe, being hooked and bent into an arguably 'aerodynamic' design. The pink fliers launched out small, diamond shaped spikes from their masses that were made of the same pale-pink. The diamond-spikes zipped towards the Titans with a high-pitched ringing.

"MOVE!" Cyborg yelled, using his robotic legs to power-leap out of the way. The other Titans scattered as the diamond-spikes struck home, each one exploding in a bright flash of pastel-orange and a rich, resounding mid-C.

"Whoa," Beast Boy said, looking back at where they had been standing. A geometric pattern of inverted-dome-craters littered the patch of highway they had been standing on moments before.

"HERE THEY COME AGAIN!" Cyborg called out as the enemy air banked wide for another approach.

"We shall see!" Starfire spat as she launched herself into the sky like a green-streaking comet. Raven _whooshed_ into the air immediately after the alien warrior. Cyborg aimed and steadied his cannonarm as Beast Boy transformed into something out of primordial earth; a fifty foot snake as thick around as truck-trailer. The ancient ophid slithered under Cyborg's feet, allowing the Titan to mount the mottled crest of his forehead as he twitch-slithered across the shimmering wastes, leaving massive gouges in the desert floor as he wheeled about at high-speeds.

The pink fliers zoomed towards their targets unperturbed, and fired off another volley of their diamond-spike missiles. Starfire moved without thought, expertly twirling through the ringing projectiles without losing any speed. Raven, just as swift but less agile, merely shifted into her soul-self, allow the diamond-spikes to pass harmlessly through her blackshining body. On the ground, the gigantic snake moved with supreme self-awareness, coiling perfectly around the polygonal missiles and allowing them to impact harmlessly on the ground below. All the while, Cyborg laid down a steady stream of coverfire between his sonic cannon and micro-missiles.

The pink-fliers broke formation in response to Cyborg's assault and managed to avoid taking any fire. But when it came to the Titan's own aerialists, things were different.

"You lack the skill," Starfire noted simply, corkscrew-banking away from another sudden volley of diamond-spikes while launching off a quick series of powerful starbolts, each of which struck their targets with pin-point precision. The fliers caught on pastel-orange fire and dropped from the sky, erupting in deep-static **BWERMP** s before they even hit the ground. Another small bout of the pale-pink fighters crossed over Starfire's path and fired off their ringing weapons, but Starfire dropped altitude and cut back in a that completely defied gravity.

"I am Starfire of Tamaran," the alien warrior announced with a calm imperiousness. She blasted the cross-fliers with starbolts as well, sending them careening downward to their pastel-dooms. A third wave of the fliers came up at a sharp angle from below towards Starfire's back.

"My people are born in the sky!" Starfire proclaimed as she turned casually, gazed down at the newest wave, and sliced right through them with a pair of thick, emerald eye beams, causing them to immediately explode in a rapid tattoo of **BWERMP!**

A playful smile caught on the Tamaraneans lips as the pastel light tinted her features, "You cannot win."

In the background, the blackshining Raven zigzagged three-dimensionally through the air, quickly bisecting several more groups of the pink-fliers and leaving them to their digital detonations.

The transparent man paced on the ground, mumbling under his breath as Cyborg and Starfire cheered in celebration and the colossal serpent writhed in triumph. Even as the man himself was unseen, so did he himself not notice as a flat rock shifted through the sand behind him. The transparent man popped his nigh-invisible neck and let out a determined huff. He pushed both his hands outward, his palms glowing technicolor.

From the air around him, fifty of the simplest possible, four-sided polygons came into being in flashes of dark purple. This horde of purple pyramids all shot towards the Titans at bullet-pace. The Titans caught sight and responded in time. The transparent man watched in growing frustration as the Titans overcame his latest bout of polygonal attackers. The pyramids were summarily destroyed in bright-red flashes by a storm of starbolts, a cyclone of blackshine, an endless wave of missile-fire, and an earthshaking tumult of gigantic green limbs that never actually formed into any single shape. The transparent man tapped his foot in anger as the rock behind him slid silently forward.

"Confound it all!" the transparent man spoke in a melodramatic baritone. "Despite the brilliance of my latest breakthrough, the limits of my technology are still too great to best these troublesome teenagers! No matter! I shall retreat for now, but when I return my designs will have improved exponentially, and on that inevitable day Jump City will prostrate itself before the self-evident superiority of my ineffable genius!"

In the blink of an eye the sliding rock lost its rigid form and blurred towards the transparent man. As it did so, a glinting of metal swung out, connecting with the back of the transparent man with a resounding:

 _CLANG!_

"UGH!" the transparent man flew forward and ragdolled across the stony desert, blinking in and out of transparency in jarring flashes of technicolor light.

"Stealth tip," Robin smirked as he shouldered his bo-staff. An oversized, sandy-hued cape the exact same color as the sliding rock fell about the Boy Wonder's shoulders. "Just because they can't see you, doesn't mean they can't hear you. You might keep that in mind next time, Dr. Light."

With a final technicolor flash, Dr. Light came into full view. Standing in his black jumpsuit and gloss-white tech pieces, the sinister scholar scowled at Robin with his vaguely simian visage.

"No wonder those things were so weak," Raven actually smiled as she _whooshed_ over to villain. "It's just Dr. Light."

"Of the course," Starfire added with a matter-of-fact nod as she formed a triangular perimeter with the other two Titans.

"Hey!" Cyborg called as he rode up to the scene on a powerful, green desert stallion. "Is that you, Dr. Light? Man, I am surprised to see you again!"

Cyborg took his feet smoothly as the stallion underneath him morph-slid away as Beast Boy, "Yeah, no kidding! I gotta be honest, dude, I thought you was a goner after last time!"

"That's a good point," Robin readied his bo-staff as the Titans fully encircled their opponent. "How did you survive?"

As he had been surrounded, Dr. Light had made no move to defend himself, and instead stood with a relaxed disconnectedness in his posture. His face, however, burned with a tranquil fury that went beyond frustration. However, at this question, Dr. Light pulled himself up straight and puffed out his chest. With a dramatic gesture, the bad doctor began, circling in place to address all the Titans in turn, "Survive? Survive, you ask! But this question proves your own ignorance, your collective misunderstanding of our last encounter! Survive? BAH! What a paltry term to describe the depths of my achievement! When you last saw me, I had fallen beyond the relative threshold, stuck like a fly to the spatiotemporal lens that is known as the event horizon! That hell of infinite depth, that is where you last left me!"

"Hey man," Cyborg shrugged. "You made that black hole yourself. Still not honestly sure _how_ you managed to make it, but you did!"

"There is much that escapes your understanding, oh Son of Silas!" Dr. Light spat at the cybernetic man.

"Yo," Cyborg's tone dropped as his face fell. "If you don't want this to get nastier than it needs to be, you leave my father outta this."

Dr. Light's eyes narrowed at Cyborg with slightly softer expression, "Were but attention paid where it is due, young man, and this life's mysteries would be yours."

"Okay," Cyborg said simply as he hefted his cannonarm. "Extra nasty it is. I won't be havin' no life lecture from some third rate supervillain."

"I'll make you a deal," Raven droned at Cyborg. "If you let him tell us how he got out, I'll do the extra nasty for you."

"Hmm," Cyborg stroked his chin with his normal hand, "I would kind of enjoy the satisfaction of doing it myself, but then again he'd probably hate whatever you did to him worse, so, yeah, it's a deal."

"Pah," Dr. Light waved a hand dismissively at Cyborg, then turned to scowl at Raven. "You think I fear you, demon, after what I've endured? What I've transcended? You wish to understand how I escaped that pointillary infinity? How I breached the barrier that defies all the forces of mundane physics? How long could I examine the granularities of that question? How long would it take to plumb the well of endless profundity that is each discrete minutia, each function and variable in the towering equation of my own liberation? Such queries are no doubt vanities, for no amount time or elaboration would yield you comprehension of the answers after which you ask!"

"Hard Light," Cyborg smirked.

Dr. Light rounded on Cyborg with a ghastly expression.

"Ooooh," Raven grinned, "Gotcha."

"That provides ample explanation," Starfire nodded pleasantly.

"Wow," Robin made frank expression, "As much as I don't want to say it, I've got to hand it to you, Dr. Light! I didn't think you had something like that in you."

"Uh-huh," Beast Boy pursed his lips and nodded, "Yeah, totally!" His ears dropped, "We all know I have no idea what that means, right?"

"There is a fifth fundamental force!" Dr. Light spat at the changeling. "All my life, all my research has been bent towards gaining a working understanding thereof! All my technology up till now, mere curiosities and side projects born from the pursuit of this elusive force! It is more subtle than the others, but also more powerful, in that it serves as primordial reflection for the other four! Via electromagnetic manipulation of certain gravitational quanti-"

"You've already lost him," Raven droned.

"Uh-huh," Beast Boy nodded.

"My dude," Cyborg smiled and held out a supporting palm, "It's solid holograms made outta extra-sciencey colors that defy the normal laws of physics and junk. Same stuff the Green Lanterns use, except theirs is way more advanced."

Dr. Light grimaced in physical pain at the explanation.

"Gotcha," Beast Boy smiled. "Hey! That's what we was fightin' just now, right?"

"Yup," Cyborg chirped. "Though those constructs were still pretty primitive as far as Hard Light goes. I gotta agree with Robin, it is impressive that you managed to crack that equation, Doc, but you're still light-years away from getting good enough to beat us with it!"

Dr. Light frowned frankly at Cyborg, "You said that on purpose."

"Said what?" Cyborg smirked.

"This has all been educational," Robin said, shifting his combat stance, "But the time for talk is over. You've attacked half a dozen passenger cars in an attempt to lure us into an ambush. Add that onto the numerous crimes already on your rap sheet, and I'm sure there's a nice warm cell in the Rig with your name on it, Dr. Light!"

"Oh, we both know that there is," Dr. Light's tone changed entirely, from flamboyant lecturer to sinister secret-teller. He turned to eye Robin with a severe smirk, "How could there not be? What with the fact that _I'm already there?_ "

The Titans' casual demeanors all vanished in an instant, replaced by the highly aggressive postures of battle-hardened veterans.

Cyborg's face twisted in a dangerous scowl, "How do you know about that?"

"How did you think you could keep something like that a secret?" Dr. Light asked back as he eyed Cyborg with pleased disappointment, clearly enjoying himself. "Dead. _Missing._ Trapped in some horrific and untreatable limbo as a consequence of dark magic or weird science. How many are there, Titans? How many villains have you _replaced_ in that ghetto you call a prison? Was that the real Mad Mod you locked up the other day? His attempts at time travel were most curious. I imagine that demolitions man from the future must now have been replaced. What was his name again? Mad Stan? I trust it wasn't hard to program a convincing imitation of such a pathological individual? Understand, I'm not blaming you for your actions. Indeed, I can understand your motivation. Certain aspects of society must already be disquieted with how much destruction you cause during your escapades, not to mention your lack of legal oversight, but you avoid such concerns by virtue of your image as _heroes_. Inspiring! Courageous! Righteous! The public at large won't hear a bad word about you. They _love_ to love you. But would it be the same if the public knew the terrifying truth? If they knew what we know, the unthinkable consequences that so often befall those that live our lifestyle, they wouldn't praise you. They'd shun you. They'd dismiss all your sacrifice and valor out of hand. They might even chase you from the city, to their own vital detriment, simply so they that didn't have to _think_ about the types of events you're involved in. Even in my case, you were wise to take caution. Oh, yes, ostensibly my fate was poetic justice. Felled by a doom of my own creation. Hoisted by my own petard! Quite. But then people would start talking, examining the manner of my defeat. They'd realize I wasn't truly dead, _spaghettified_ into singular gore. They'd slowly grasp the implications of being trapped within such warped relativity, and the mere _possibility_ of this consequence even _existing_ would be too much for some of them. They would not think rationally. Many of them are so unstable they can't react rationally to social extremes, let alone existential horror. Oh, to be sure, my end would not be enough to change things. A few outliers would decry you, a few more would agree that it was a horrible fate but would not hold you accountable. The vast majority would simply refuse to process it, for they would not be able to emotionally reconcile their horror at my fate with their psychological need to _love_ you. But how many, Titans? How many _bad ends_ would it take before people started to wonder? Before the dread took hold of their hearts? To be sure, a sizable number of people have spirits made of stronger stuff, and they would always stand by your service to them, but when the fickle hearts of those who live their own lives as spectators started to turn, they would turn all at once. They would see you as liars, betrayers! Not because you did anything to hurt them, but because what you had to suffer in order to save them was too terrible for them to abide. It's understandable that you'd seek to avoid this fate. But it is ironic that in your attempt to avoid being seen as betrayers by those who are weak of heart, you have become liars in fact. Now, when your secret inevitably escapes, the weaker hearts will turn rabid, and the stronger hearts will know you as untrustworthy. Quite the paradox you've found yourselves in Titans. I do not envy you your position."

"Are you done?" Robin asked, his expression unreadable but his stance unmistakable. The other Titans all brooded at Dr. Light with hollow faces and unblinking intensity.

"Hm-mm-mm!" Dr. Light tittered pleasantly to himself. "My my! Look at all of you! Underneath that youthful vigor, has life worn your souls so thin already? A tragedy what this Machiavellian society has convinced you that you must be accountable for! You know the truth that I know, yet you refuse to accept its practical outcome! In a world so populous, Democracy isn't a government. It's a wildfire of reaction! The people cannot be trusted to govern themselves! Most of them can barely be trusted with menial employment! How can they be expected to responsibly govern their own society? The answer is self-evident! They cannot be. The responsibility to maintain order therefore falls to those of superior will and ability. _We_ are those superiors. The metahumans. Those of us with power, knowledge, and experience beyond the pale of our society. And that is the fatal flaw of all you heroes. You know this truth, but you believe you need the peoples' consent to govern them, to safeguard their lives. But the truth is that they're not capable of giving such consent. They're like children. It's morally reprehensible to demand it of them."

"Guys," Beast Boy's ears were pinned back and his eyes were bestial. "He ain't gonna stop talkin' till we stop him."

"Agreed," Raven droned, nothing more than pair of stony lips inside a shadow inside an unmoving cloak.

"Titans-" Robin started, but before he could finish Dr. Light threw his arms in the air and engulfed the desert in a dome of blinding light. When the light vanished, the Doctor was no more.

"Cyborg-" Robin started, but was cut off.

"On it," Cyborg growled, his metal fingers punching away at his forearm display. No more than a couple seconds had passed before Cyborg's brow furrowed deeply and his teeth grit like a vice, "Dammit!"

"What?" Beast Boy asked with a dropping voice. Starfire's face gained a certain tightness. Robin and Raven did not react.

 **"DAMMIT!"** Cyborg roared and threw a hydraulic kick at a nearby rock, shaking the desert around them and reducing it to dust and rubble. "It's Dr. Light! He's warping the electromagnetic spectrum around us so that I can't get a signal out to the Rig! I can't control Light's simbot out there! _I can't make it vanish!_ "

"Dude," Beast Boy covered his eyes with his hand. Starfire settled down onto the ground. Robin turned to Raven.

"Plan B," Robin said. Raven nodded, but before anything else could happen Raven was thrown to the ground in large flash of yellow light and a ringing low-G.

As Starfire darted to pick Raven up, the Titans turned their perimeter to face outward, finding more than a hundred small, white spheroids hovering about them in a complex grid. There was no command, no battlecry. The Titans engaged, and the spheroids responded.

"HIS HARD LIGHT TECHNOLOGY IS PRIMITIVE!" Cyborg bellowed as he destroyed a file of white spheres with a beam from his cannonarm and tanked two yellow-ringing explosions to the side of his body. "IF WE'RE BEING ATTACKED IT MEANS HE'S STILL AROUND!"

"GOOD!" Robin called out, his sandy-cape twirling behind him as he flipped through air, a spiraling fan of bird-a-rangs flying out from his position. "RAVEN!"

The cloaked Titan did not even bother to respond, but merely transformed into her soul-self and took off into the sky, phasing through the white spheroids without effort and heading for the bay. However, before she made it far, a group of some dozen spheroids formed a pattern around her and all connected via thin beams of yellow light, which then converged on Raven with an earsplitting static. Raven's soul-self cried out in pain for a long moment, her voice echoing impossibly loud through the scorching desert, before transforming back into her normal flesh and dropping from the sky like a stone.

"RAVEN!" Starfire shrieked, flying with unparalleled skill through the veritable minefield of attacking spheroids. Even as she moved to catch her friend, Starfire's warrior training still held, and she blasted spheroid after spheroid into nothingness.

As Starfire caught the falling Raven in the backdrop, the land-based Titans fought with an uncharacteristic savagery, taking and dealing more damage than usual in a barbaric display of all-out violence. The spheroids matched the Titans self-destructive tactics, not even attempting to avoid incoming attacks, but merely moving as a hive in order to efficiently draw fire to some areas while landing the greatest number of kamikaze attacks possible.

It was a short and gruesome battle, but the Titans were still standing as the last of the spheroids rang out in yellow-hued death.

"Raven!" Beast Boy yelped as Starfire touched down, cradling Raven in her arms.

"Her vitals are stable, but-" a slightly battered Cyborg said as he came running up, examining his forearm display.

"Look," Starfire said in a hollow voice. She took her hands away from Raven and the cloaked girl hovered in place, her hands crossed over her chest.

"Her healing trance," Robin growled as he walked up to the others, his lower lip bleeding freely.

"She'll be okay," Cyborg sighed with relief. "But there's no telling if she'll be getting back in this fight."

"When I get my hands on Dr. Light-" Beast Boy's growl took on a more-than-human rattle.

"Let's do that," Robin said matter-of-factly. The Boy Wonder deftly slid a thumb over a particular spot on his belt, retrieving a small dab of ointment which he then rubbed over his split lip, abetting the bleeding. He wiped off the lingering blood with the back of his glove and looked at Cyborg.

"I've already checked radar," Cyborg grumbled. "I'm picking up about three different invisible Lights per second. He's using his new Hard Light technology to send out interference."

"That means he's still close though, right?" Beast Boy growled.

"Close is a relative term," Cyborg frowned. "It's true that he'd need to stay within a certain radius, but this is probably the absolute simplest application of his technology possible. We can't even see the waves. That's how low powered they are. Without examining his tech, I can't give you an honest estimate of how close or far away he might be."

"Then we're not finding him here." Robin stated, pressing a button on his belt. "Priority is the Rig. As long as Cyborg's signal stays blocked and Raven is unconscious, we'll have to resort to Plan C; the manual escape tunnels."

The R-Cycle roared to an automated stop as it pulled up next to Robin. The T-Car slid into place right afterward. Cyborg gently cradled Raven's hovering body and moved her over to the T-Car, where one of its back doors popped open on its own.

"Beast Boy," Robin continued. "I'll need your help to reach the tunnel entry point as quickly and stealthily as possible. Jonah Maneuver. Starfire, I need you following us in the sky, providing cover. Light might ambush us in-transit. If he does, don't join immediately. Keep an eye out for a technicolor glow between bouts of his Hard Light constructs. That's the only tell-tale sign I noticed of his power. Time it right and dive-bomb him. Cyborg, we're gonna need to stay close until the situation stabilizes. Follow at a safe distance in the T-Car. Be prepared for anything."

The others all looked at Robin with vigilant expressions, saying nothing.

"Titans. Go," Robin said as he mounted the R-Cycle and immediately took off through the desert towards Jump City. Starfire and Beast Boy both took to the sky, and Cyborg followed soon after in the T-Car. Raven slumbered in the T-Car's back seat, hovering just off the seat cushions. The Titanic force ripped through the rocky flats towards the gleaming light of Jump City, sitting atop its mesa like a sunkissed beacon. The heat of the desert shimmered more and more violently, their waves expanding higher and higher. Though the Titans moved at an incredible rate, the mesa and Jump City seemed to come no nearer. Robin increased his speed, and the other Titans followed suit. The heat distortions only became more furious. As it became clear that Jump City was growing no nearer, Robin brought the R-Cycle to a halt. The T-Car stopped beside him, and Starfire and Beast Boy landed as well.

"It's Light," Cyborg said as he stepped out of the T-Car.

"His new tech can stop us from moving?!" Beast Boy yelped.

"No," Robin shook his head. "These are his old tricks on a bigger scale. He's got us caught in an illusion. We think we're headed towards Jump City, but we could be heading in the opposite direction."

"But what about-" Beast Boy turned to Cyborg.

"Radar's still bad, GPS is jammed and the compass thinks we're on the North Pole," Cyborg ran a hand over his head.

"If we cannot trust our instruments," Starfire started, "And we cannot trust our eyes."

"We're worse than blind," Robin growled. "We're Dr. Light's playthings."

"There's gotta be a limit on his power!" Cyborg spat, gesturing forcefully. "The man's upgraded, but he's not all powerful! Runnin' as much as he is and as much as he has been has got to have been a drain on his batteries! He can't keep this up forever!"

"But we don't have a second to spare," Robin narrowed his eyemask.

The Titan's communicators and vehicles lit up in a chorus of alarms and red lights. The Titans all shared a harrowed look. They collectively hesitated a moment before Robin flipped open his communicator.

"Detective Slack," Robin kept his expression and voice remarkably even. None of the other Titans joined the call.

 _"Robin!"_ Slack's red-tinted face looked out from the darkness of the screen. The screen's image twisted and blurred. The speakers cut into static before Slack's face and voice returned, _"-en trying to reach you!"_

"It's a wonder you reached us at all, Detective," Robin said. "We're in the middle of heavy interference. What's going on?"

 _"Interference? Are you out -BBBZZZZZZZSHH- Flats? That's what we're worried about! There's been a sustained attack in that area. Are you involved? Do you have -BBBzzzZZZZZt- to report?!"_

"You're breaking up, Detective," Robin frowned. "But yes, we are involved with the combat out in the flats. The enemy appear to be some sort of drones. We're not sure who or what is behind them at this time, but we're working on it."

 _"Robin, you Titans need to be careful! STAR Labs is showing -BBBZZZZZRRrrrrtht- in the range of peak radiation -BBZZZZZZZZZSSHHHHHhhh- wants to know if you need -BZZZZZZZZZZZZZRRRRRRRRRRZZZZZZZZZZt- Hello? Are you still there? Do you need JCPD backup? I repeat, do you need backup? Robin?!"_

"We're losing you, Detective," Robin winced. "But no. The Titans do not need backup, repeat, no backup. The situation is too dangerous to involve the JCPD. More boots on the ground only give the enemy more ammunition. Keep a perimeter around Jump City. Don't let anything in. Do you copy?"

 _"-ZZZrt- copy. No backup, form perimeter. Repeat, no backup, form perimeter. You Titans stay alert out there. Whatever this is its growi-BRRRZZZZZZT-"_

Robin frowned down at his communicator as it replaced the call with a blank screen and the message 'No Signal.'

"How did he get through?" Robin asked.

"Can't say for sure," Cyborg shook his head with a tired expression as he look over a readout on his forearm display. "The communicators run on a different wavelength than the majority of my other systems. Granted, I could modify them to run on that wavelength, but they'd still be blocked, because the wavelength that the communicators transmit on is scrambled, and has been scrambled, except for the length of Slack's transmission, when it cleared up just enough for him to get through. Either Light's tech is already giving out and its a huge coincidence that Slack got through, or..."

"He's toying with us," Robin sneered. It wasn't a question.

"Do not despair!" Starfire proclaimed. "The Dr. Light will not defeat us! His power has a limited range, yes? I shall ascend into the stratosphere, and then re-enter Jump City at a trajectory outside his illusionary influence!"

"That could work!" Cyborg smiled excitedly.

"That could be just what Light wants," Robin scowled. "He had prepared a method for taking Raven out of the fight as soon as I sent her out the ranks. Maybe this is his plan. Separate us one by one until he can finish us off."

"Well we gotta do somethin'!" Beast Boy said, his voice rising. "Dr. Light's out there, somewhere, with a whole new setta powers that we ain't know nothin' about! Not to mention, y'know, the OTHER thing!"

"Beastie's right!" Cyborg nodded, his own voice growing louder. "This is serious! We shoulda never started replacin' prisoners in the Rig! Now a chump like Dr. Light has us by the neck just 'cause he's managed to disorient us for bit! We have to act!"

"If we rush into our next move without a plan, then no matter what we do, we're playing right into Dr. Light's hands," Robin said, struggling to keep his voice even.

"Friends, please!" Starfire floated in the middle of the three boys, "We must not set our energies against one another! Now is the time to join our efforts! If we do not move together then we will surely falter!"

The boys all took a step back and a deep breath.

"You're right, Star," Beast Boy nodded, giving her a toothy grin which she happily returned.

"So," Cyborg set Robin with a serious expression. "What's the play?"

"Well," Robin bowed his head in thought. "Given all the circumstance, I only see one real option. We have to try and beat Dr. Light at his own game. Well, maybe not actually _beat_ him, but at least give him enough of a run that he slips up."

"Yeesss," relief broke over Cyborg's face in the form of a wincing smile. "Yes! That's genius!"

"Soooo," Beast Boy's ears dropped as Cyborg moved excitedly over to the T-Car and began rummaging around in its trunk. "Any chance you guys wanna show your math on this one? Cuz, while seein' Cy like that does make me feel a bit better, I'm still totally lost about what we're doin' over here."

"Agreed," Starfire nodded, a cautiously optimistic look on her face.

"Light's illusions are based in manipulations of the EM spectrum," Cyborg explained as he folded out a large control panel from the T-Car's trunk and a massive antenna bloomed from the roof of its cab. Cyborg began typing furiously on the panel as he continued his explanation, "Now, for simply scrambling radio signals and such, all he needs to do is flood the channel until it exceeds capacity. Not much we can do about that, but! For all this bendin' light, smoke and mirrors, illusionary hoodoo he's got goin' on right now? That's a lot more complicated, which means its a lot more precise and a lot more energy consuming, which means its a lot more vulnerable!"

"Yeah, mmhmm, sure, okay" Beast Boy nodded tiredly. "Now explain it to me like I'm, y'know, me."

"We're going to try and scramble Light's illusions so that we can see the real Jump City," said Robin.

"Word," Beast Boy smiled, his ears popping up in understanding.

"Wonderful!" Stafire clapped her hands, floating up slightly higher in the air.

"Okay, here we go," Cyborg said, turning a dial on the control panel. Unseen to all except for Cyborg's cybernetic eye, the T-Car's antenna began projecting a precisely tuned EM signal.

"I don't see nothin'," Beast Boy said as he looked around. "Or at least nothin' different."

"Hold on," Cyborg said, turning the dial up more. The signal strength increased steadily in response.

"Look!" Starfire pointed, "The city!"

The Titans all looked on in relief as the image of Jump City atop the mesa began to flicker and fade. Indeed, the entire northern horizon began to jump and buzz into a different image altogether, one that showed Jump City further east and much closer than they had believed it to be, but before the Titans could get a firm grasp of their true surroundings, the image started to fade back into the fake backdrop from before.

"Dude, no!" Beast Boy yelped. "What's happening!"

"Dr. Light's upping the power," Cyborg grinned. "But there's good news and good news. Which one y'all want first?"

"THE GOOD NEWS!" Beast Boy shrieked, throwing his hands up into the air.

"The good news is that we're at Dr. Light's limit," Cyborg licked his lips in righteous pleasure. "How do I know that? Because his other forms of keeping us blind are weakening. The radio scrambler, the magnetic anomalies, even the radar interference are all starting to weaken. They're not gone yet, but he's clearly having to reallocate energy from those applications in order to maintain his illusion."

"And?" Beast Boy asked desperately when Cyborg paused in his explanation. "What's the GOOD NEWS?"

Cyborg gave Beast Boy a smug smile, "That I can do this."

Cyborg turned the dial up on the control panel once again, and as he did the T-Car's antenna began to hum with power. The northern horizon once again jumped and buzzed and blurred and twinkled all over with little sparkles of light. Pieces of it began to fade in and out as the two technologies struggled to maintain the vast expanse of land before the Titans.

"How are the other signals?" Robin asked as the horizon continued to fluctuate.

"Still barely there," Cyborg frowned, looking at his forearm display. "Can't send signals out to our simbot in the Rig yet, but its just a matter of time."

At that moment, the Titan's communicators and vehicles blared out the alarm once again. The cautious optimism was once again replaced by collective tension. Robin flipped open his communicator once again.

"Detective Slack," Robin addressed the red-lit face on his screen. "How are things on your end? We should be able to talk more clearly now. Is the city's perimeter secure?"

 _"No,"_ Slack frowned on the screen. _"The perimeter is not secure. It's Dr. Light."_

Cyborg, Starfire and Beast Boy's faces all fell in realization. Robin's face only frowned in convincingly appropriate concern.

Slack continued, _"He's attacking the city, rather recklessly I might add. There are no casualties, yet, but we're not having much success in containing him. He's learned some new tricks."_

Robin nodded earnestly, "That explains a great deal. What we've been fighting against might well be related to the subject of his research all these years. Looks like all the doctor's work has finally come to fruition. Hold tight, Detective. We're nearly out of the flats. We'll be back in the City in a few minutes to put a wrap on Dr. Light."

 _"That's not all, Robin,"_ said Slack, his eyes seemed more sunken that usual. The gathered Titans wheeled about in nauseated shock. Even Robin's lip twitched slightly.

"What's wrong, Detective?" Robin asked, his voice still perfectly even.

 _"There's been a... discrepancy,"_ Slack spoke the word as if it tasted foul in his mouth. _"You see, Dr. Light's still in the Rig."_

Beast Boy sat down on the ground rather abruptly. Starfire joined him on her knees. Cyborg closed his eyes and braced himself against the trunk of the T-Car.

"It must be another one of his illusions," Robin provided with hesitation, his face still a perfect mask of faux sincerity. "It's almost certainly a trap. Keep it contained in its cell. Do not engage it. After we've dealt with the real Dr. Light, the Titans will take care of his decoy."

 _"We already dealt with the decoy, Robin,"_ Slack's eyes narrowed down to slits and his lip curled in disgust. The other Titans shrank deeper into shock as Robin's lip twitched again. Slack continued, his voice heavy with accusation, _"It was extremely convincing. All scans and medical tests showed it to be flesh and blood, the real Arthur Light. But once it started_ resisting _, well, the truth came out. Underneath some very realistic skin and gore, that Light was a robot. Now, according the boys from STAR Labs, the robot is unlike anything Light's ever made. But, according to them, its design theories are very similar to your man Cyborg's."_

"What're you suggesting, Detective?" Robin's response was too quick, too aggressive. Slack's reaction was explosive.

 _"CUT THE SHIT, BOY!"_ Slack's eyes nearly popped out of his red tinted face as it contorted into outright rage. _"YOU PUT THAT THING IN THE RIG! YOU MADE IT! YOU KNEW DOCTOR LIGHT WAS STILL AT LARGE AND YOU PUT THAT THING IN OUR PRISON TO MAKE US THINK OTHERWISE!"_

"Detective," Robin's voice was far more measured, more humble. "It's not what you think-"

 _"IT'S NOT?"_ Slack continued, is rage building. _"BECAUSE I THINK IT'S OBSTRUCTION! I THINK IT'S FABRICATION! I THINK IT'S COLLUSION! I THINK IT'S ABOUT A HUNDRED OTHER THINGS THAT MEAN THE TITANS HAVE BEEN LYING TO THIS CITY! LYING TO DIRECTLY TO MY FACE!"_

"Detective-" Robin started, but before he could continue Starfire had gripped Robin's wrist and gently directed his communicator towards her face.

"You are not Detective Slack," Starfire said matter-of-factly, her composure completely restored.

The boys all looked at her with laser like focus.

 _"OH, I THINK I AM!"_ Slack sneered mockingly on the screen. _"OR WHAT? DID YOU REPLACE ME WITH A ROBOT SO GOOD THAT EVEN_ I _DIDN'T NOTICE?"_

"You are _not_ Detective Slack," Starfire repeated imperiously, then continued with a very casual tone. "You have done the overacting, Dr. Light. The detective is a far more controlled individual. His fury at such a discovery would not be so loud and possessing of the, forgive me, drama-of-the-mellows."

Slack's face heaved on the screen for a few moments before abruptly settling down into an amused smirk. When Slack spoke again, it was with Light's baritone, _"Drat."_

As Slack's red-tinted face morphed into that of Dr. Light himself the other Titans all let out deep breaths that they had only been semi-aware of holding.

 _"My theater instructor always told me that I had a penchant for chewing the scenery,"_ Light admitted with a care-free shrug. Rocky sands kicked up in a rugged wind behind Light's face as he moved at speed through the desert.

"It's over, Light!" Robin snarled into the communicator. "We've nearly broken down your illusion! We'll find you and when we do-"

 _"Yes, yes,"_ Dr. Light nodded tiredly. _"Extrajudicial violence. I'm well aware of your modus operandi. I admit, my position is untenable. I cannot maintain my illusions for much longer. Fortunately, I can maintain them long enough to effectively disappear. You'll have the opportunity to, what, stage my daring breakout from the Rig before you lead what I guarantee will be a futile manhunt for my 'recapture.' Do me a favor, Titans, at least make my escape look clever. In return, I'll avoid spilling your secret. Truth be told, I rather like this new direction you've taken. You're maturing into the realities of this world quite gracefully. Before long, I imagine you and I will see eye to eye."_

"We'll only see eye to eye through the crystal glass of your jail cell," Robin growled. "We are going to find you. We are going to take you in, and you are going to spend years exactly where you belong."

 _"And all without a trial,"_ Dr. Light smiled.

"You'll get your trial," Robin sneered. "But we both know the verdict. Think of it this way, Doctor. When you're being held without bail and waiting for your day in court, you're really just getting used to your new home."

 _"How contrived,"_ Dr. Light raised a critical brow. _"But, you'll still have to apprehend me, which will soon be quite impossible. You can't yet even see your precious city clearly, and before you do I will have made it to what I can assure you is an impeccably secure, and completely clandestine locale. Unless you'd care to attempt some sort of Hail Mary, I suggest you accept my escape."_

 _"Well, I don't know about_ Mary _,_ " a second voice droned from over the communicator. Light's face fell open in shock as blackshine filled the screen's background. Raven's face sunk through the unglowing wall, smirking, _"But I do have something I'd like to try. Azarath. Metrion! ZINTHOS!"_

"WHAT?!" Cyborg and Beast Boy cried in excited tandem. They both jumped to look in the backseat of the T-Car, and found it completely empty.

 _"NO!"_ Light screamed as the blackshine overtook him and covered the communicator. At that moment, an eldritch warbling filled the air as a swirling portal of unglowing power fractal-spun of out thin air. A high-tech offroader zoomed out of the portal and rolled several times across the desert, settling in a pile of totaled scrap. A blackshining Dr. Light followed next, screaming, "NOOO!" at the top of his furious lungs. The portal collapsed in on itself, revealing the levitating form of Raven, floating Dr. Light in front of her with a single mudra. With a swipe of Raven's hand, Dr. Light's gloss-white technology disassembled and ripped off his body, scattering uselessly on the ground. Light himself followed suit as Raven's power vanished from his body, leaving him in nothing but a black jumpsuit as he fell to the ground in a plume of sand and dust.

"WELL ALLLLRIIIGHT!" Cyborg cheered as the northern horizon switched fully back into its true shape.

"YEEEEE!" Beast Boy hollered as he jumped directly on Dr. Light, pelting the man with weak slaps all over his body.

"Stop that at once!" Dr. Light swatted at Beast Boy's hands.

"HAHAHAHAAA!" Beast Boy laughed jubilantly as he playfully rolled over the powerless man.

"Raven!" Starfire cried in ecstasy as she flew into the cloaked girl and wrapped her in a crushing embrace.

"Hey Star," Raven droned, smiling ever-so-slightly.

Robin smiled widely as he swaggered over to Dr. Light, forced the man to his back, and cuffed his hands together with a practiced ease. The Boy Wonder smirked at Raven as he stood, then nodded to the T-Car and said, " _Nice_ move!"

"Well," Raven shrugged slightly underneath her cloak, "His spheres just gave me a little psychic shock. Nothing to worry about. When I came to I noticed that you were distracted and he was distracted, so I focused on finding his emotional aura and then, boom. Here we are."

"Here we are, indeed," Dr. Light sneered from the ground. "So now I am your captive, and you can lock me away as you so desperately want to. But I still know your shameful little secret. So what now? Do you blackmail me into silence somehow? Or do we do this on the honor system? If the later, you should know that I meant it earlier when I said I'd keep what I know to myself, but under these circumstances I'm going to want... compensation."

"Maaan," Cyborg smiled wide and shook his head, "You are _sssooooo_ not in a position to bargain."

"Ye," Beast Boy shoved his face into the doctors, frog-crouched on the ground next to him. "You lucky we ain't givin' you that extrasumspecial you was talkin' about."

"Here's the deal, Dr. Light," Robin took a knee in front of the down villain, a smug smile plastered on his masked face. "You're not the only villain to have some idea of what's going on at the Rig. There's not many, but there are a few. We have a method for dealing with that situation. You see, as long as the person in question doesn't know the specifics, doesn't have any proof, and doesn't make any attempt to investigate the phenomenon, we let them be. Take Mad Mod, for instance. That was the real Mad Mod that we locked up, by the way. He's had to have seen our fake Mad Stan by now. Know what he's done about it? Not a thing. Why? Because he knows that's something he does not want to mess with. Now, you, you may not have proof, and you may really be willing to keep your silence, but there's still one problem. You know too much, Dr. Light. You know far too much."

"I guess I do, don't I?" Dr. Light spat, his eyes wide and wild. "So how will you deal with me? Summary execution? I don't think you Titans have it in you!"

"I don't intend to ever find out if we have that in us," Robin said, his expression turning gravely serious.

"So what, then?" Dr. Light cried. "What do you do when one of we villains does not fit your criteria?"

"This," Raven droned, reaching out a hand. Before Dr. Light could even flinch away, Raven pressed two fingers to his temple, and both her and his eyes burned hot grey. For a moment the two shared the mystical connection, with Dr. Light giving out a mindless groan, before Raven pulled her hand away and Dr. Light fell limply to the ground, snoring like a well-fed baby.

"It's done?" Robin asked.

"It's done," Raven answered, rubbing her temple. "There was more to suppress than normal. His time in the blackhole. His time in hiding since he escaped it. His discovery of the simbots. It was... a lot. But it's suppressed. I implanted all the necessary suggestions, too. He'll stay under until he wakes up in the Rig, and when he's there he'll fill in the gaps in memory as he goes. He'll think that's where he's been these last few months. He'll even come up with a brand new memory of discovering Hard Light."

"You sure you couldn't just erase that, too?" Beast Boy asked.

"Suppress," Raven stressed. "Not erase. And no, suppressing the knowledge of Hard Light would be too dangerous. We're talking about the culmination of the man's entire scientific career. It's something he's been hypothesizing, researching, testing and chasing after for decades. Now the knowledge is there, in his mind, and no matter how deep I might bury it, it would still be there. His life's work would take him quickly where it already has once before, and in rediscovering Hard Light, he'd remember the rest of what was suppressed."

"You did good, Raven," Robin said.

"For sure," Cyborg nodded, "And you all know I hate to be the one to break up a celebration, but you see those tiny little red and blue lights on the horizon? Those are the JCPD. The real JCPD, coming to find out what all the hubbub was about."

"Cool!" Beast Boy grinned, "Villain pick-up service! Now you just gotta do your sweet, sciencey-magic to Light's simbot and we can all go out for... I dunno, you guys feeling Mexican tonight?"

Cyborg turned around to face the other Titans with a solemn look on his face. He held up one hand and pointed to his forearm display. "You see that button right there? That's all it takes. In under ten seconds, Dr. Light's simbot goes bye-bye without a trace, and all the Rig's security systems and computer history gets altered exactly how they need to be according to our pre-set algorithm."

"Uhh, yeah dude," Beast Boy shrugged, giving his large friend a toothy grin. "Sweet sciencey-magic, like I said. Soooo, y'know, push-push!"

Beast Boy stood on his tip toes and pointed a finger at Cyborg's forearm display, but the larger man gently pushed Beast Boy's hand away.

"I'm not sure we should do that," Cyborg said. Robin's eyemask narrowed. Starfire clasped her hands pensively. Raven's face remained stone.

Beast Boy's ears drooped directly downward as his eyebrows nearly shot up off his face, "Uuuh, DUDE? You think you maybe wanna run that by me again?!"

"It's like you said, B," Cyborg shook his head. "When we first found out that Light had us trapped in that illusion. We couldn't just focus on the situation at hand. We had to worry about that OTHER thing."

"Whoa! Hey! No!" Beast Boy waved his hands in denial. "I did not say that! I mean, I did, but, I didn't mean that we, you know, should NOT do the thing! Like, I said that cuz I wanted the thing to NOT happen! Or to not NOT happen! You know what I mean!"

"Cyborg," Robin started in a carefully considerate tone. "When we first discussed the idea of these simbots, of the Rig itself, we went over every moral and ethical aspect of the situation together. We all agreed that it was for the best. Do you not feel that way anymore?"

"No," Cyborg shook his head, "Or, I'm not sure. Look, man. I know that that weirdo, elitist stuff that Light was spouting about us 'seeing eye to eye' and 'maturing gracefully' was total nonsense. Just cliche villain crap. I know that's not what we're about, okay? I'm not saying that. I'm saying that when we thought that what we've been doing might get out, it shook us. We were off our square from the minute Light told us that he knew. And that's a big problem. I mean, sure, we rallied. We caught the guy. But we were waaay off our A-game, man. What I'm really saying is this; if this secret makes us that weak, then maybe we're better off without it."

"Cy," Robin began, "Let me tell you how I see it. Batman always told me that the hardest part of being a hero is running into a choice where you have no good options. Do you save the Joker as he's falling off a building even though he's killed hundreds of people? If you don't save him, and you could have, does that mean you're an executioner? And if you are an executioner, why aren't you killing all the worst villains? What we do as heroes has to be rational. It can't be pathological. If one cold blooded killer deserves that forty story fall, they all do. But when a man in cape who can't be stopped decides he alone holds power over life and death... That's not a hero. That's a despot. Society doesn't function well that way. All throughout history, people have gone that route thinking that they'd set things right, and it always ends up with the world ten times bloodier than it was before. And what we're doing is trying to make society better, so we catch the Joker as he falls, even though it means accepting all the murders he's committed. And we tell ourselves its okay, because the Joker doesn't answer to us. He answers to society. And maybe that's true, but it doesn't change the fact that you just saved a mass murderer, one who will likely get out to kill again, and that's... that's almost impossible to deal with! But we have to! With these simbots, we have another hard choice. Do we lay bare to the public exactly how much of what goes on in this world lies not just outside their power, but outside their comprehension? Do we let society panic in misunderstanding and throw itself away in a frenzy of emotion? Or do we use our expertise to portion that truth responsibly, even if it means living with the risk of being found out as manipulators? Do we ween them off the tit of normalcy, so that they can eventually come to accept the world as it truly is without giving up on the idea that _they_ , not us, are the very thing that makes justice work. Jump City is advanced in a way that Metropolis never has been. Even in just the years we've been here, our people have casually adopted levels of weird and crazy that make the rest of the country's head spin. We're blazing a trail here, Cyborg. We're walking into a future where everyday people know the ins-and-outs of the Apokoliptan-New Genesis relationship. A world where people accept that it's possible to jump in and out of a computer screen, or soar through the sky with a magic word. A world where people won't be misled by the Gordon Godfreys and the Lex Luthors every time they paint a target on Superman's back. But we only get to that world one step at a time. The public has to walk before it can run."

Cyborg fixed Robin with a frank stare for a pregnant second, before exaggeratedly pressing the button in question on his forearm display.

"You been plannin' that speech!" Cyborg pointed a big metal finger in Robin's face, smiling wryly and shaking his head. "I don't know how long you've been holdin' on to it, but you've been _itchin'_ to bust that baby out!"

Robin held his hands up in surrender, an open expression on his face as he said, "That was all right now."

"Nuh-uh," Cyborg shook his head. Starfire giggled brightly and floated through the air. "Noooo way!"

"I swear," Robin put his hand over his heart, "Batkid's honor."

"Uh-uh," Beast Boy grinned up at him. "Ain't buyin' it, dude. That is pants on fire, right there!"

"Liaaaarrr," Raven droned with a small grin.

"The Liiieeeeeeess," Starfire purred, pawing playfully at the air as the JCPD transports finally drew close to the Titan's position. Dr. Light snored peacefully in his sleep.

"Seriously, man," Cyborg gestured. "I gotta know. How many drafts did you go through before you settled on that speech?"

"That was all completely spontaneous," Robin grinned.

"Four drafts?" Cyborg asked, "Six? Eight? Come on, dude, you gotta lemme in on it!"

"I'm tellin' you, Cy, that was all from the heart!" Robin reassured.

The Titans bantered as the police carriers pulled to a stop and the space-suited officers disembarked. The officers went about their executive functions, completely at ease with the Titans' jocular attitudes and carefree demeanor even as they 'recaptured' a supervillain they had not even yet noticed was 'missing.' The sun beat down on the sunken flats as they shimmered with ethereal heat. Jump City stood above and away atop its towering mesa, glistening like silver in the heavens.


End file.
